The Black Hole of Langport
How one town in Somerset found itself bypassed by the information highway. The town at the heart of the Levels is in the bottom 10% in the country on just about every measure for broadband service.
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The Black Hole of Langport
Langport, for those who have not discovered it yet, is a charming town at the heart of the Somerset Levels. The River Parrett loops around the east and south sides of the town while a central narrow street with buildings leaning implausibly away from it leads you into a gloriously quaint town centre
One that is full of cafes, no less than three bakeries, galleries, a clock maker for heaven’s sake and as the advertisers like to say, so much more…. There’s even a local vineyard producing top notch sparkling wine.
The river in summer is a sparkling blue artery along which travel all manner of boats. For pleasure these days, the trade in salt and coal that once flourished is long gone.
It has an awful lot going for it.
As much as it has made giant strides in recent years to become recognised nationally as a tourist destination, it has fared less well as a centre on the internet superhighway.
According to the government, rural areas of Britain are getting a major investment to ensure they are competitive as a place to live and work. On 6 February the Department for Science Innovation and Technology announced that another £1 billion would be invested to provide Gigabit Broadband in those hard-to-reach rural places.
£1 billion would be invested to provide Gigabit Broadband in those hard-to-reach rural places
They proclaimed that: “Five of these latest contracts will be delivered by broadband provider City Fibre, serving rural communities in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Berkshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Sussex, Kent, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes. A further contract to upgrade premises in Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire has been awarded to Hull-based supplier Connexin.”
That would result in 237,000 homes getting the new broadband speeds for the first time. But nothing for Somerset.
Overall central government is rather proud of the speed at which Gigabit Broadband is being rolled out. So much so that on 15 January this year they announced that 80% of the country now has access to Gigabit Broadband connectivity (that simply means it is available, not that it is being taken up). It was, they said, the next major connectivity milestone.
But not in Somerset.
In fact, bearing all that in mind it is starting to look as if the internet superhighway is taking a detour around our county.
It is not all bad news though. If you live in a large town in Somerset, you’ll quite likely be able to access Gigabit Broadband if you want to.
Take Frome for instance. Gigabit Broadband is available to over 88% of households in the town. In Frome North East, it is available to over 97% of households. So well above the national average.