The Welsh Government’s Leader of the House claims Superfast Broadband is making a difference to businesses in Newtown.
Julie Jones, who has responsibility for digital infrastructure, was visiting the town when she called in to businesses to see how fast broadband is making a difference.
It comes as some businesses in the area are still struggling to get reasonable broadband connections and speed.
She called in at Motif Creative in the town centre, saying the speed of the broadband was making a difference to the business.
The company has already won strategic contracts in the US and Europe after investment in Cloud infrastructure, supported by superfast broadband, has helped it break down geographical barriers and allowed the company to fend off competition from agencies abroad.
The visit followed the agency’s attendance at a workshop delivered by Superfast Business Wales, which offered them advice on how to make the most of their high-speed connection.
Stuart Spooner, Motif’s managing director, said: “It is apparent that technology is becoming more of a factor in driving revenues and sustaining growth, and businesses that are not investing will inevitably be left behind. We already generate 40 per cent of our revenue from international customers, which has also contributed to our forecast of 25 per cent growth in total revenues by 2019.
“Having superfast broadband has made a real difference to us, and in fact the service is better here in Newtown than in our other office in Nottingham.”
Julie James said: “It’s great to see how superfast broadband is making a difference to companies across Wales, including here in Newtown. Superfast Cymru is about bringing superfast broadband to areas which would otherwise not receive it. No premises in Powys were due to receive it through commercial companies, but now almost 50,000 premises in the county are able to access it thanks to our programme.”
However, Montgomeryshire AM, Russell George, is still campaigning for more improvement to broadband in the area. He has highlighted many cases where not-spots still exist, these are areas where there is no broadband connection in Montgomeryshire, or where speeds are limited, causing problems for businesses that want top embrace the technology.
Ed Hunt, regional director for Openreach, the business responsible for Britain’s largest phone and broadband network, said: “Superfast Cymru has played a significant part in making Wales among the European leaders in digital performance and connectivity.
“It’s a fantastic digital leveller that businesses in towns like Newtown can now order the same fibre-based services and speeds at the same cost as those living and working in central London.
“It’s great to see companies like Motif Creative taking advantage of these new speeds.
“While there’s still more to do in terms of roll-out, I would encourage every business which already has access to make the most of this new superfast network that our engineers have built across the country.”
Superfast Cymru is the partnership between the Welsh Government, BT Group, UK Government and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), bringing faster broadband to areas which would otherwise not receive it.
