Is Suffolk Broadband behind schedule?

A week or so ago it was reported on Look East that both Suffolk and Norfolk are 'behind' in their plans to roll out faster broadband across their respective areas.

This is certainly not the case in Suffolk.

Here in Suffolk we have always guaranteed to provide 85% of the population with superfast broadband and the remaining 15% with an improved broadband service. Elsewhere in the country the roll out has been 90% superfast with the intention of giving the remaining 10% some improved coverage, but not guaranteeing this by the deadline. This has caused confusion and is why media are claiming that the rural broadband roll out is late. In Suffolk we are actually ahead of our targets and timescales.

Mark Bee, Leader of Suffolk County Council, has made the following comment:-

 "Here in Suffolk we consulted with residents and businesses about the kind of broadband service they wanted. They told us that they would rather we rolled out superfast broadband to 85% of the population with the remaining 15% receiving an improved broadband speed but not superfast, rather than 90% superfast and 10% getting nothing.

"This is what we are doing here in Suffolk - it doesn't mean that we are critical of how other local authorities are rolling out their Better Broadband programmes. Each local authority is different and Suffolk has many rural communities so we felt our programme had to ensure they had the best chance of improved broadband coverage.

"We are on track with the roll out in Suffolk with phase one - 8,391 premises set to have better coverage by Christmas this year, and we are on target for the rest of the programme to be delivered by 2015."