Shropshire Broadband Half that of Telford

Around 50% of internet users in Shropshire get download speeds that are only half as fast in Telford.

20:39 17 December 2018

A survey carried out by law firm Grant Thornton UK found that Shropshire had an average download speed of 26.3Mbit/s (megabits per second), which is almost half the average speed of Telford and Wrekin Council area (52.7Mbit/s).

 

Bosses at the government-backed Connecting Shropshire programme said that the difference in numbers is due to the county’s large, sparsely-populated geography.

 

Chris Taylor, the Connecting Shropshire programme manager, said: “Since 2013, the Connecting Shropshire programme has commissioned three separate contracts to deliver improved superfast broadband coverage due to market failure.”

 

He added: “With regard to the difference in average download speeds between the Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin council areas, there are a number of factors that should be borne in mind.

 

“The most obvious of these is that the Shropshire Council area is far larger and more sparsely populated than Telford and Wrekin.

 

“This has meant that many more premises were not projected to be covered by the commercial market, leaving a much larger ‘intervention area’ for the Connecting Shropshire programme to resolve.”

 

Councillor Philip Atkins, the leader of Staffordshire County Council, said: “These figures show that businesses in shire counties and rural areas are being left at a competitive disadvantage.

 

“It cannot be right that in some areas, businesses and residents in a city less than 10 miles down the road from a rural county benefit from average download speeds of more than three times faster.”