Another Opportunity for Devon County Council to Miss?

Fujitsu, one of the world’s largest technology and

communications companies, today announced plans to work in collaboration with

Virgin Media, TalkTalk and Cisco to deliver next generation internet services

to 5 million homes in rural Britain.

The collaboration and subsequent Fujitsu build of a new

superfast, fibre optic broadband network is a ground breaking and innovative

alternative to BT Openreach and provides an opportunity for any community or

local authority looking to access a proportion of the £530 million earmarked by

the UK Government to drive investment in superfast broadband in rural

communities.

Devon County Council is a local authority looking to access

a proportion of the £530 million, but for some unknown reason is unable to do

it alone, deciding to hold hands with Somerset County Council.  Diluting the bid, when over 90 percent of its

area is promised 2 Mbps by 2015 seems to be acceptable to Devon County Council.

Devon County Council has yet another opportunity to engage

with another partner, but with a 1 Gbps fibre optic roll out on offer, which is

some 500 times faster than their acceptable target. Will that be too fast for

them? Will Devon County Council be back of the queue?  Will they even bother?