Broadband is a big challenge, if you can’t access the internet, you can’t make as much use of the opportunities from open data – although initiatives like the Newspaper Club (@jaggeree) and Barcode Poster (@adrianshort) show you can take it to the doorstep and streets. Provision of broadband has opened up the space for initiatives like Twicket (@johnpopham) or our new community broadband scheme, as part of Connecting Kent.
Where’s my connection?
As part of our broadband scheme, you can see what grants are available, what type of broadband your community wants, how to set up a group and how to make a business case.
You might want to use the data we’ve just released on broadband speeds categorised by postcode.
Download data for postcodes BR
Download data for postcodes CT1-CT19
Download data for postcodes CT2-CT9
Download data for postcodes DA
Download data for postcodes ME1-ME19
Download data for postcodes ME2-ME99
Download data for postcodes TN1-TN19
Download data for postcodes TN2-TN9
Going through a tunnel
Data on mobile phone coverage can also be really helpful, particularly if you commute a lot, which many people in Kent do. That’s why I was positively surprised when I saw Open Signal Maps (@opensignalmaps), one of the pitchers of the recent Mini Seedcamp covered here by @joshhalliday. Take a look and see if you can recognise the “hot spots” and “not spots” of your train journey trying to get a decent phone signal.
What other telecommunications or broadband data should be opened and how could it help local communities and businesses? We’re organising a competition which will be much more modest than SeedCamp but which will take on board some of its principles, what could we explore around the issue of digital access?
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