Cllr Jonathan Glanz, Lead Member for Broadband and Connectivity outlines the role all Westminster residents and businesses can play in showing demand for faster broadband speeds.
London consistently tops the league of global cities on a whole host of measure from sustainability, quality of life, tax competitiveness and most desirable place to live and work. London is truly the world’s greatest city and Westminster is at the heart of what makes London great. Yet surprisingly, London ranks 26th out of 33 European Capital cities in terms of internet download speed, averaging just 25.44 Mbps, compared to 80.14Mbps in Bucharest and 78.6 Mbps in Paris.
That is why Westminster council’s commitment to improving broadband speeds across the city is vital and needs your support. Your Conservative Councillors have been pushing BT and other internet providers to improve the availability of superfast fibre broadband services across Westminster on behalf of our residents and businesses. We have secured a commitment from BT to roll-out fibre broadband, which delivers download speeds of up to 76Mbps, where it can be demonstrated that there is sufficient demand.
Residents and businesses across the city can join forces with Westminster City Council in calling for action from providers and sign up to calling for superfast fibre broadband at www.westminster.gov.uk/broadband.
As we plan for the next generation of technology and the development of an Internet of Things, ensuring connectivity across our great city with ultra-fast broadband and mobile network is vital to our continuing success.
The Mayor of London has pledged to deliver 5G mobile capacity by 2020, with the possibility of download speeds up to 1Tbps, but as we stand today only 47 per cent of premises in Westminster have access to superfast broadband and download speeds can be very slow and variable.
Falling through the gaps between Government funding for rural broadband to meet the target for superfast broadband coverage to reach 90 per cent of the UK by 2016 and the market led implementation, a House of Lords report concluded “we find it unacceptable that there are still urban areas experiencing internet ‘not spots’, which is hampering…the UK’s international competitiveness.”
When it comes to broadband speed, mobile coverage, and 4G keeping Westminster’s residents and businesses connected is a top priority. With a commitment from BT to invest where there is proven demand and Virgin announcing £3bn of investment that will benefit high population urban areas, it is more important now than ever to ensure the investment continues to flow into Westminster, please sign up and join the campaign at www.westminster.gov.uk/broadband.
