A RESIDENT in a small village is demanding speedy internet be made available in his area - after fast broadband was deployed to neighbouring towns two years ago.

Lightspeed Broadband has been sending 1GB fibre broadband to Frinton and Walton for the last two years, but some roads in Kirby Cross have not been afforded the same service.

The better performing internet service is supplied by fibre optic cables which off much higher and more consistent connection speeds.

Clacton and Frinton Gazette: Unaffected - The red boxes are where the FTTP broadband is unavailableUnaffected - The red boxes are where the FTTP broadband is unavailable (Image: Richard Spurgeon)

One resident, Richard Spurgeon, 43, is now calling for faster broadband to be made available in Kirby Cross, where he lives. 

He said: "I have had several conversations with Lightspeed, starting nearly two years ago when I asked if I should recontract with BT or if they will be coming soon.

"They indicated that I should remain on a rolling contract so that I can switch to Lightspeed as soon as it becomes available.

"This means for the last two years I have had to pay over £50 a month for my 30 megabit broadband."

Clacton and Frinton Gazette: Change - Richard Spurgeon, hoping to get FTTP broadband in his areaChange - Richard Spurgeon, hoping to get FTTP broadband in his area (Image: Richard Spurgeon)

Richard works from home twice a week as a software developer so relies on decent internet. 

He said: "It makes routine tasks I perform every day such as deploying new customers' websites and software much slower than it would be on a 1 Gigabit FTTP connection."

Work is not the only thing affected, as Richard and his children enjoy playing console games and using streaming services.

He added: "On my current connection I need to leave my console or PC turned on all night so hopefully by the morning it will have finished downloading.

"Whereas on an FTTP 1 Gigabit connection, 100 Gigabytes would download in roughly 15 minutes."

Lightspeed has since informed Richard work has not been done due to the way the telephone cables were originally installed by Openreach. 

Richard said: "It feels rather frustrating knowing if my street had telegraph poles or telegraph ducting it would probably be available by now.

"However, it appears the areas which are not covered have their telegraph cables buried directly in the ground by BT Openreach when the housing estate was built."