Broadband boost for Pendle's rural areas welcomed (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Broadband boost for Pendle's rural areas welcomed

10:00pm Tuesday 31st July 2012 in Pendle

BROADBAND campaigner Andrew Stephenson has welcomed OFCOM plans to increase coverage to 98 per cent of the population.

The auctioning off of the service will vastly improve infrastructure in remote rural areas of the UK.

Traditionally, up to six million people in Britain have been excluded from good mobile coverage.

Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson was one of the leaders of the campaign to increase the coverage, signing a back-bench business committee debate motion urging OFCOM to increase the coverage.

In a House of Commons debate last May he said: “Unless rural broadband improves, people will no longer be able to move into those villages or other rural areas, killing our local economies and leaving those still living in those communities with restricted access to jobs, information and public services.”

The long-awaited auction will start later this year, but bidding will not begin until early 2013.

Mr Stephenson said: “This news will be welcomed by residents across Pendle who have suffered with poor internet connections and mobile phone coverage for so long.”

And he added: “I thank OFCOM and the Government for listening to the arguments we made and for acting to help rural communities.”

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