THE lack of broadband coverage in Dorset is a disgrace.
No example better typifies the problem than the case of the Kimmeridge Fossil Museum, which is due to open in May and had no broadband and virtually no mobile signal.
BT Open Reach couldn’t help.
Instead, museum director John Woodward resorted to piggybacking on technology provided by French oil firm Perenco, which will bounce a signal from a transmitter on Portland to Kimmeridge.
And while I admire Mr Woodward’s initiative, the truth is, it should not be necessary.
The Government has invested £1.7 billion so far on bringing the country’s broadband service up to speed, but BT and its subsidiary Open Reach are, in effect, a monopoly.
The incentive, therefore, to upgrade the system’s increasingly obsolete copper wires to fibre is lacking.
And this week, a damning report from former minister Grant Shapps makes it clear that progress is woefully inadequate.
Along with 140 other MPs, I signed the accompanying letter demanding action.
The report, which analyses every constituency in the country, shows that 48 per cent of customers in rural areas like ours, have connection speeds so low they break regulations.
Certainly, to many of my constituents, the news that Dorset languishes in the bottom third of the country for superfast broadband speed will come as no surprise.
Indeed, an earlier Ofcom map showed that South Dorset has the second slowest average download speed in the country.
For a county which relies upon tourism for its prosperity, this exacts a heavy toll.
Our letter called for Open Reach to be sold off, allowing more investment from outside and thereby, hopefully, the broadband service we deserve.