Oxfordshire's on the move to broadband for all

Very good news.

I have received some very good inputs from Tony Baldry (MP) and David Robertson (OCC) giving an update on Oxfrodshire's broadband targets and actions.

1 A Digital Summit was held in Culham, 25-09-10

2 100% broadband coverage is the target

- negative impact on economy without it

- needed to help rebalance economy toward more businesses

- benefits for tele-health, e-learning, working from home

3 Roll out of broadband to everyone in Oxfordshire by 2015 (by OCC, Ox Economic Partnership & Local Enterprise Partnerships)

4 Set up Broadband Working Group. Project manager is Dawn Pettis

- focus 1st on OCN (Oxfordshire Community Network for CC Offices, Schools, Libraries etc). Divest OCN to a service provider to allow us by others

- engage with service providers (BT Openreach, Vitesse, GEO, STL, T James, JON Exchange

- meet Cornwall Development Company who have started a project

- document examples of best practice for communities for broadband access, need & desire for broadband expressed in Community Led Plans

5 Funding

- BDUK (Broadband Delivery UK), a government BIS find set up to address broadband deficiencies in rural areas. Workshop 25-11-10 in Guilford. Plan bid in Waves 1 or 2 in 2011

- EU ERDF, investigating

- Regional Growth Fund, investigating

6 All District, Town & Parish councils informed - see next blog post, progress will be posted on the OCC / LEP web site

7 Select a tier 1 partner, detail a project plan for rollout, prepare bid for funding

Reply

My reply was simple "Excellent".