Buckingham MP Greg Smith is launching a campaign to deliver better broadband for constituents and is calling on residents to contact him with their broadband experience so he can lobby ministers to improve services for local people.
As well as the issue of accessing decent broadband in some rural areas, Greg says that from letters and emails from constituents it is clear that there are also issues for people in a number of new build properties.
Greg strongly backs the Conservative Party's manifesto pledge to roll out gigabit broadband to the hardest to reach areas first and will be making the case for Bucks to be prioritised within that.
He said: "Working from home has become the new ‘normal’ for many people and this has placed local broadband provision under the spotlight.
"So many aspects of our day to day lives are dependent on being online. Reliable, fast internet access is clearly vital for working and learning at home. But it is also increasingly important in other areas too. For example, watching tv is becoming less and less about what happens to be broadcast, with on demand taking over. There is only one direction of travel: more and more of what we do is going to rely on connectivity."
According to the House of Commons Library, 10.4% of households in the Buckingham constituency are unable to receive broadband speeds higher than 10 Mb/s, with 4.6% of current connections slower than 2 MB/s. Likewise the official stats suggest 78.5 per cent of households could get superfast speeds (compared to a national average of 91.4%).
Greg added: "From my inbox, it seems that these figures are actually rather optimistic. It has also struck me that broadband issues are not unique to our more rural areas, but in some new build housing in our towns too. I have also heard too many cases of OpenReach failing to deliver.
"Whilst there are some excellent local solutions, including broadband delivered wirelessly to homes, it is clear to me that more must be done to improve broadband options for a significant number of local homes.
"I was delighted to stand on a manifesto committed to rolling out gigabit (very fast) broadband to the hardest to reach areas first. I am pushing Ministers to get on with this. However, in order to make a compelling case for the Buckingham constituency to be prioritised I need your help."
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"With this information, I will be able to put together a much clearer picture for Ministers as to why our part of Buckinghamshire needs prioritising for gigabit broadband, " said Greg.