FIRMS and residents in north Oxford say they are frustrated at delays to the roll-out of superfast broadband in the area.

As part of the £25m Better Broadband campaign, BT was contracted as a partner by Oxfordshire County Council to bring speeds of at least 24mbps to 90 per cent of properties.

But residents and businesses in Jericho and Summertown have complained they are still stuck with speeds of 4 to 7mbps and, according to Better Broadband, there is no change in sight until June next year.

Oxford City Council North ward member James Fry said residents in his area had been promised an upgrade by this autumn.

Our top stories

He said: “The entire street and the big Eagle Works site across the canal, though quite modern, have lousy broadband access.

“They were promised upgrades but through a series of mistakes Eagle Works disappeared from the list for a while and the delivery dates for William Lucy Way keep being pushed back.”

Speeds of 24mbps allow for uninterrupted streaming of videos, but 4mbps can limit surfers to just standard internet browsing.

In correspondence between BT and city council officials seen by the Oxford Mail, BT said problems in finding a power supply and obtaining wayleaves – permission to carry out work on private property – was the cause of delays.

Mr Fry said firms in the area could also lose out on a city council “broadband voucher” scheme, which expires in March, as a result of the delays.

The £3m scheme gives small businesses, including those who are home-based, up to £30,000 to pay for superfast broadband connections.

City council officers told Mr Fry that currently BT broadband infrastructure in the area was “limited”, so firms and residents could opt in only to slower services – regardless of what provider they choose. This is because many other suppliers rely on BT’s network and are limited by what it can offer. The William Lucy Way postcode gives an estimated download speed of 6mbps on BT’s website.

Virgin, another rival infrastructure holder, does not serve the area. One more expensive alternative for businesses is to obtain a dedicated fibre-optic cable for their premises, but that was outside the budget of the average small firm, Mr Fry added.

It is understood that city council officers are also exploring bringing wireless internet to the area, which would be faster and less expensive than laying new cables.

William Lucy Way resident Albert Qyqalla, who works from home twice a week, said he was frustrated. The 57-year-old added: “It is affecting my daily work performance, and apart from slow internet speeds I have been without services for 30 to 45 minutes.

“Residents don’t have any information about when we will be upgraded. We were told it would be done in October.”

BT spokeswoman Emma Tennant said: “These areas are due to be fibre-enabled before the end of June 2015 as part of the Better Broadband for Oxfordshire partnership between Oxfordshire County Council, BT and the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme, subject to the normal engineering surveys.

“This has always been the planned timetable for this area, and the work’s going well.”

She added that different areas would have different timetables, depending on what scheme, be it Better Broadband or commercial BT works, they fell under. She did not explain why customers were under the impression their faster broadband would be in by October.

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services  you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.