Nothing should stop residents in Great Yarmouth from seizing the benefits of better broadband, whether it is an unresponsive landlord or a property developer’s failure to act.
So it is great news to hear that the Government will ensure new homes in England are fitted with infrastructure capable of delivering gigabit broadband, avoiding the need for costly installation work after the home is built. They will also make sure telecoms firms can get faster broadband to over nine million people currently living in flats.
Gigabit broadband is now available in over 72 per cent of the UK and is already boosting productivity for local businesses in Great Yarmouth, and local residents working at home through lightning fast download speeds, as well as enabling entire families to stream movies, TV and video games in high quality 4K and 8K definition onto multiple devices at the same time with no slowdowns in speed.
In a further boost to resident's access to better broadband, another new law has made it easier to install faster internet connections in blocks of flats when landlords repeatedly ignore requests for access from broadband firms. The Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Act (TILPA), now in force in England and Wales, makes it easier for broadband providers to gain access to install equipment in blocks of flats, when a faster connection is requested by a tenant. It is estimated that an extra 2,100 residential buildings a year will be connected as a result.
Connection costs will be capped at £2,000 per home for developers and they will work together with network operators to connect developments to the gigabit network. It is estimated over 98 per cent of premises fall within this cap, meaning moving into a new build property without lightning-fast internet speeds will become a thing of the past for the vast majority of people across England.
Thanks to the Government's new laws, millions of renters will no longer be prevented from getting a broadband upgrade due to the silence of their landlord, and those moving into newly built homes can be confident they’ll have access to the fastest speeds available from the day they move in.
