Contact/Cyswllt:  Sian Cliff
02920 898342 / sian.cliff@wales.gov.uk

Montgomeryshire Lib Dem and founder of the Assembly’s Mid Wales Cross Party Action Group on Broadband, Mick Bates AM, today urged the First Minister to work to increase access to broadband across Wales, so that rural Wales is not left behind by the technological revolution.

Mick Bates AM: “The internet offers so many benefits, such as access to public services, community information or helping people to keep in touch with family and friends.

“A recent report by the Consumer Council Wales states only a quarter of people over 65 have a home internet connection. But it doesn’t matter if you’re 6 or 65, you cannot even access these services unless you can access a good internet connection.

“Broadband is a huge problem for people living and working in rural Wales and I am deeply concerned that for too long the Labour-Plaid Government has been failing the people of Montgomeryshire, who are still unable to access a broadband connection.”

Having long campaigned on this issue Mick recently met with BT who expressed their concern that the Welsh Assembly Government RIBS scheme only offered 50% of the funding needed to administer the scheme.

“Although as a result of the RIBS scheme over 9,000 more homes have access to broadband, there is still much work to be done to solve the remaining broadband blackspots” Mick adds.

“The new contract to continue work under RIBS must offer more than the 50% funding offered under the current contract to be commercially viable for any service provider.”

On January 24th Mick wrote to the Minister for the Economy, Ieuan Wyn Jones, to highlight this issue. The Deputy First Minister in his reply stated that ‘the 50% portion available through the RIBS project to the contracted supplier is as a result of strict European State Aid regulations.’ He further stated that his officials are ‘actively engaging with the telecommunications industry where discussions include the issue of state support and its likely proportion.’

Commenting on this response Mick adds:

“I have been campaigning for a long time to raise awareness of the problem of access to broadband in rural areas. I am pleased that the current Minister for the Economy is finally taking the issue seriously. I will continue to campaign to ensure Mid Wales is not left behind by the so called ‘technological revolution’.

“I hope that the Labour-Plaid Government will listen to the people of Wales and develop a new informed contract under RIBS, backed by sufficient funding, to deliver high bandwidth affordable data communications infrastructure to all homes and businesses.”



End / Diwedd



Notes:

The Welsh Assembly Government’s, Regional Innovative Broadband Support (RIBS) Scheme is to provide broadband services to broadband ‘not-spots’, i.e. areas of Wales located within enabled exchange areas that still cannot receive a broadband signal.