Election results day a good day to bury bad news — who’d have thought it? Fortunately for people living in rural areas, the bad news wasn’t buried as well as the government might have hoped: it turns out the Conservatives have changed their tune a little on their plans to roll out decent levels of broadband across the country by the end of this parliament. 95% of homes will receive superfast broadband by he end of this year. But around a million homes — mainly in rural areas — will not be receiving superfast broadband, and for those who have poor broadband service, its ‘Universal Service Obligation’ will require homes and businesses in the 5 per cent of areas that don’t yet have fast broadband to request the service.
It could take until 2020 for the connection to arrive – and it’s unclear how it will be funded – with Ed Vaizey admitting that ‘there might be an element where individuals would have to contribute’ (i.e.
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