An English village remains without broadband 26 years after the service was first rolled out in the UK, as promised upgrades have been delayed and cancelled for years. Frustrated residents of Godshill, Hampshire, have spent 14 years battling to get broadband in their village, but say they have been forgotten about.
Rural Community Left Behind
The 500-person rural village, located in the New Forest National Park, was promised broadband by the UK government and Wessex Internet, but the plans have repeatedly fallen through. Many households still rely on Victorian-era copper wiring for internet connectivity. Godshill was even dropped from the £16 million government-funded Project Gigabit in March of this year, despite most of the village still lacking adequate internet. Project Gigabit aims to bring fast and reliable broadband to hard-to-reach communities, targeting coverage for 99 per cent of households by 2032.
With no broadband upgrade in sight, villagers have been forced to spend up to £100 a month for Elon Musk's Starlink satellite Wi-Fi, while others tap into the local holiday park's Wi-Fi just to get online. Those who cannot afford expensive alternatives face internet speeds as low as 1 Mbps, which is insufficient even for sending emails with attachments.
Residents' Frustrations
Kevin Moore, 68, a retired accountant who moved to Godshill with his wife eight years ago, described sorting out broadband as his 'obsession' after upgrades fell through time and again. 'I've been trying to sort it out and we kept being told it would be sorted by different people,' he said. 'When we first moved in we got a letter saying broadband would be upgraded in three years, then we got a letter saying it would be a couple more years, and that carried on.' Mr Moore reported that his Wi-Fi would cut out at 4 pm and never exceeded 25 Mbps, prompting the couple to pay for a costly upgrade. 'We've now taken the jump into Elon Musk's world with Starlink. It was a huge hassle to set up, it took me days. But it's stellar compared to what we were getting,' he added.
Broadband was first rolled out in Britain in 2000, and over 96 per cent of households now have access. However, Godshill remains part of the four per cent without reliable internet. Some homes were upgraded by Openreach to fibre broadband in 2012, but the rest were promised an upgrade that never materialised. In December 2023, Wessex Internet informed villagers and the council that Godshill was included in its publicly funded Project Gigabit rollout, covering 159 homes. But the village was later removed from the scheme, leaving residents feeling 'simply dropped'. Wessex Internet has stated that a private company, as yet unconfirmed, will introduce broadband to the area in the future.
Elderly Residents at Risk
Many elderly villagers cannot wait for an upgrade and have purchased Starlink because their fall alarm systems have gone digital. Without a stable internet connection, older residents live in fear of not receiving help if they suffer a fall or injury at home. Peter Woodward, 62, Vice Chair of Godshill Parish Council, described this as a 'worrying' issue that has persisted since 2012. 'Our only recourse is to kick up a fuss,' he said. 'The village has about 500 residents and the original plan had 159 homes covered. People are struggling to reach speeds of one, two, three, four Mbps so they are resorting to using 5G or paying for Starlink. The age profile of the village is quite old and one of the issues is that they're moving everything onto digital. A big concern with people who are elderly is that with the copper wires being taken out or made defunct their fall alarms aren't working.'
Chairman of Godshill Parish Council, Councillor Richard Fell, called the situation 'deeply concerning'. 'We were part of the Government's original rollout plans, and now we've been removed on the basis that someone else will deliver - yet no-one can tell us who that is,' he said. 'We are not an isolated or unviable location. Fibre is already being deployed in surrounding areas. We have simply been dropped. This is exactly what rural communities were told would not happen. Instead, we are seeing promises made, plans announced and then communities quietly being dropped.'
Godshill is a rural village in Hampshire featuring a 12th century Iron Age hill fort and a church. The village also has a 100-year-old pub called The Fighting Cocks, named after a former cock pit in the area. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and Wessex Internet were approached for comment.
