Tytherington Parish Council Broadband Survey Analysis of Results May

Who Responded………..  100 respondents in total – 99 resident households and one business – around a 50% response rate  Of the resident housesholds, 59 involve working from home, of which 19 run their own businesses. There 15 are students, though 67% of residents study or carry out research.  The vast majority (86%) are heavy broadband users – either on the internet continuously or many times each day  The residents use broadband for the full range of daily living activities, including personal s, online shopping, leisure browsing of the internet, streaming “on demand” tv services etc.  Business users use , either direct from a server or via VPN. They also utilise and trade via the internet. 2

The key messages in summary…….  The vast majority – 80% - of users are dissatisfied, or very dissatisfied, with the broadband performance they receive, with 76% saying that this restricts their business, study and daily living  Nobody achieved the Governments proposed Universal Service Obligation of 10mbps download speed by 2020, let alone the 20mbps speed that is the minimum defined as “superfast.” In fact, 92% get less than 5mbps.  Upload speed performance is even worse with 94% achieving less than 1mbps.  Added to this, only 10% of respondents regard their service reliability as “Good.” Nearly half perceive it as “Poor” or “Very Poor.”  This has a significant and negative impact on people’s lives - both residents and businesses. For example, 74% of households experience limitations on live streaming, 66% with online shopping and 64% with leisure browsing. 88% of those working at home experience difficulties, as do 65% of those studying. All of those running home based businesses report restrictions on their ability to operate efficiently.  As a result, around a quarter of residents say that failure to improve broadband could impact their decision to remain in Tytherington and 60% of home businesses report that the future location of their business will be influenced unless broadband provision is improved. 3

The key messages in detail…… 4

The vast majority of users are dissatisfied with the restriction poor broadband places on their daily lives and business Q: How satisfied are you with your current broadband performance? Q: Is the performance of your business/work/study restricted by existing broadband provision? 5

Because download speeds are poor…….. ? Govt. USO 2020Min. “Superfast” Speed Despite being covered by the commercial roll out of fibre, download speeds are well below the proposed Universal Service Obligation 2020, and not close to being considered “superfast.” These speeds are sufficient, for example, to receive IPlayer, but not enough for Netflix in HD. As a result, 74% of residents feel restricted in their ability to stream TV, and 66% simply carrying out online banking/shopping and leisure browsing of the internet. And 65% are limited in their ability to study at home – including students and children at school At these speeds, VPN access can be challenging – 88% of those working at home are restricted or lose effectiveness 6

And Upload speeds are even worse……… At these upload speeds, respondents are restricted in their ability to: Use cloudbased storage – 65% of respondents are limited by this Upload files via VPN – 88% say working at home is hampered by broadband speeds Upload study documents and home learning – 65% report that speed limitations restrict study 7

Added to this, reliability of service is perceived as average to poor At peak times, speeds deteriorate for many users Q: How reliable is your internet service? 8

Such that residents and businesses/homeworkers are restricted in their daily activities…….. Q: What would you like to use the internet for, but are currently restricted by available speed and/or bandwidth? 9

Which is influencing some people’s, and some business views about remaining in the village longer term……. Q: Would your broadband performance affect your decision to remain a resident in Tytherington? Q: Will the future location o your business be influenced by the provision of broadband if it is not improved? 10

In summary, the poor broadband service is seriously impacting Tytherington’s desirability as a place to live and work:  Shopping, banking, streaming entertainment, leisure browsing and all the other aspects of daily living are either frustrating and time consuming, or simply not possible at all  Children’s education is hampered  Working at home is either inefficient or impossible  Running a business is increasingly difficult  Paying a premium for fibre – the same as others – but receiving a much worse service The world is increasingly being designed around superfast broadband. Without it, Tytherington is being left behind – unfairly compared to other, indeed, smaller communities locally, that have been connected for “free” “There should be no reason why a village of some 800 people is not included when other smaller places have it locally” (Local Resident) 11

Daily living in Tytherington - what people are saying…… IIt takes a long time to do even the simplest of things – even s. Parts of Africa are better IOur connection is so bad that we have to use 4G – much more expensive & still slow IIPlayer is variable, Netflix is not possible ILive streaming is not always possible – even internet access is restricted at times INow I am disabled, I use my computer much more, but it is so frustrating…I would not buy here now but am stuck We are deterred from using the internet for photobooks, cloud storage, watching tv & films “We are being left behind through no choice of our own” 12

Working at & running a business from home in Tytherington - what people are saying…… IIt is so poor that I cannot work from home IWhen planning to work from home, I have to consider if it is school holidays as the speeds drops off a cliff II run a consultancy with blue chip clients & the majority of time, I cannot access realtime services IOur business cannot be conducted without online access – HMRC, banking, BCMS etc. II run a business with foreign links. I have to go to Thornbury to skype/facetime my contacts in New Zealand IWe are employees of a large organisation that require staff to work at home, but we are restricted….. 13

Learning and studying in Tytherington - what people are saying…… ISometimes my teenagers cannot access GCSE and A Level work IWe have 2 children aged 10 even today, home learning can be difficult on the net – what about GCSE’s! IIt seriously impedes our children in their education IMy son is studying for his GCSE, but a result of poor broadband, he has to stay on at school to use the internet 14

Paying too much for what we get – what people are saying….. Despite paying a premium for fibre, as a family & business, our speeds are way too low IWe are charged for a high speed service that they do not provide IWe pay the same for our poor service as those with a much better service IMany work colleagues have fibre to the house at 200mbps for the same cost as my current BT contract IDespite paying for fibre, we get very poor speeds – less than 4mbps Even though we are close to the secondary cabinet, we still get poor speeds despite paying for BT fibre “It will affect our house prices, I know of people who have said they won’t move here because of the poor broadband” 15