TELECOMS giant BT has told a retired west Cumbrian man that he is entitled to have “affordable” fast fibre broadband in his rural home – provided he stumps up £500,000.

Retired lawyer David Roberts was given the quotation after he used the Government’s ‘Universal Service Obligation’ for broadband scheme, which gives people a legal right to “decent and affordable” broadband.

It obliges the government to contribute up to £3,400 towards each installation.

But Mr Roberts, 65, who lives in a small hamlet four miles north east of Cockermouth, was staggered when BT sent him a quote for installation, with a price tag of £502,586.40.

Most of the cost – 82 per cent – was to cover laying the fibre cables. Despite that eye-watering cost, Mr Roberts and his neighbours live a mile-and-a-half from a village where BT provided fibre broadband at no cost.

He sought the quotation after a fruitless earlier attempt to secure broadband for homes in his community under a partnership scheme.

Openreach said it would cost £380,000 to supply 29 local properties, including his home in Isel. That equates to £11,500 per home, or £10,000 for businesses.

Of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) scheme, Mr Roberts said: “It provides a legal right for people to request affordable fibre broadband with the Government willing to contribute up to £3,400 per premises. Householders make an individual application.

“The quote I got was just over £500,000 – but who’s going to pay that sort of money? At Blindcrake, just up the hill from here, residents had full fibre broadband installed a couple of years ago for free.

“The Government’s scheme clearly isn’t working. Local people don’t have that kind of money to splurge on broadband. Openreach is trying to put pressure on the Government because they don’t want to spend the money.

“Nobody has explained to me why Openreach quoted me a figure of £380,000 to supply 29 properties with broadband and yet when it was a quote to supply just me the figure came out as just over £500,000. I’m not going to pay that just so I can watch Netflix without it buffering.

"With fibre broadband, rural areas are being left out in the cold.” Mr Roberts added that he was still having a dialogue with BT but the most recent quote underlined how the price he was quoted showed clearly that there was nothing 'universal' about the USO scheme as suggested by its name.

In certain circumstances, there are grants available of £1,500 but this would cover fibre installation for a distance of less than 27 yards, added Mr Roberts.

Allerdale councillor Ron Munby and his wife Helen live nearby.

The area's existing copper wire internet cables are so worn out they are almost useless, making online council meetings impossible, they say.

Helen, 69, said of Mr Robert’s broadband quote: “It’s utterly ridiculous.

"We have broadband but it's pathetic. We've lived at Isel for 24 years now and the phone-line has always caused problems. Now, of course, the broadband is carried along the same lines and the phone line was condemned years ago by Openreach engineers who say it's been fixed so many times it's exhausted its lifespan.

Helen said the situation required government intervention.

She said her husband's role as an Allerdale councillor - with meetings regularly now held over online Skype video meetings - was hindered because of the feeble broadband.

"We have had constant problems with our broadband," she said.

"The scheme they have is completely unrealistic. Nobody can expect the average person to pay those sort of prices. It's just not worth it.

Ron said that the area's worn-out copper wire broadband is "almost non-existent."

"Everybody knows the problem," he said.

"Something like 25 per cent of people are in the same situation in the UK. The same scenario will exist around the county. It has to have an impact on the community - on the business community and on the generation and I speak as a former chairman of Age UK.

"We're trying to get the older generation into information technology and they're going to feel completely isolated."

Workington MP Mark Jenkinson was sympathetic to the affected residents, and vowed to continue fighting to bring affordable broadband to Cumbria.

He suggested that the issue was linked to there being a broadband "infrastructure monopoly".

"It's simply not acceptable," he said, commenting on the price quoted to Mr Roberts.

"I live in Seaton, which is a built up area in the middle of an estate. I can see the [fibre broadband] box from my house. I applied to get a cost for full fibre broadband and the quote came back at £40,000. I really have concerns about their pricing structure. There is no free market for broadband supply in Cumbria. But I'm confident that the Department [for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport is willing to tackle this.

"I will continue to raise it."

A BT spokesperson said: “We’re sorry for the disappointment the quote has caused Mr Roberts.

"His property is several kilometres away from our nearest usable network, which means significant civil engineering, build and cabling work is needed to provide a connection. Mr Roberts could reduce the cost by exploring other opportunities such as joining up with other homes nearby and seeing if a Community Fibre Partnership is viable – they could also use Government vouchers for this to further reduce the cost.

“Ninety-five percent of UK homes already have access to Superfast Broadband of 30 Mbps and above and we’re working closely with Government to find other solutions for the very hardest to reach.”