Common use of Drivers for Change Clause in Contracts

Drivers for Change. 2.1 The existing broadband provision in the county is currently failing to deliver the national universal service commitment of 2Mbps to 23.8% of premises in Herefordshire (Ofcom1 2011) with the same data revealing that there is no access to Superfast Broadband in Herefordshire (though BT have announced superfast deployment for Hereford as part of a commercial roll-out). 2.2 Herefordshire faces particular challenges because of the limited amount of existing telecommunications infrastructure and its relatively low population spread over a large area making premises costly to reach compared to more urban areas. Without public sector funding, telecommunications companies would not invest in the wholesale Broadband 1 Communications Infrastructure Report 2011 network across the rural areas because of the limited return on investment, even in the long term. Consequently without public sector intervention, rural areas will increasingly become digitally excluded with businesses losing competitive advantage and residents unable to take advantage of the financial, educational, social and health benefits of being on-line.