Ursula Huws is frustrated at the lack of connectivity

A PROFESSOR renowned for her expertise on teleworking is facing a communica­tions blackout which she says makes a mockery of Camden’s self-styled “Knowledge Quarter”.

Ursula Huws says her block in Coopers Lane estate, Somers Town, cannot access fibre optic cables that providers are now relying on for internet services.

The political economist, who runs a small publishing business from home, blamed Camden Council for a failing to replace ageing wires which are shortly being phased-out in a nationwide “copper switch off”.

This was a “flagrant contradiction with their stated policy” of making the Knowledge Quarter – a one mile zone of world leading digital companies and educational institutions around King’s Cross – inclusive to all, she said.

The irony of living in an “innovation district” boasting powerhouse companies like Meta and Google but without access to modern super fast internet, was also not lost on Professor Huws, who said: “I write books about technology and I was onto all this ‘knowledge economy’ hype many years ago.”

But she added: “We are bombarded with rhetoric, including public signage, boasting about its world class digital infrastructure.”

“Yet this world-class infrastructure, while no doubt providing ultra-fast connections for the offices of the Crick Institute, Meta, Google and the many other large organisations that make up the Quarter, skirts right round the edge of some of the council estates in the area.”

She said internet companies routinely put leaflets through her door offering a new service, but when called say they cannot because there is “no fibre in the block” and only the copper wires remain.

Set up in 2014, the Knowledge Quarter brand now boasts almost 100 partners including a host of world leading AI firms, research hospitals universities, the British Museum, as well as Professor Huws’ bêtes noires: BT and Camden Council.

In six weeks, internet supplier BT is moving to a new operation, meaning copper wires that supply part of the estate will no longer be in use.

Professor Huws – a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences – is also facing losing her landline phone as well as her misfiring broadband in the switch off.

A Camden Council spokesperson said: “As telephone and broadband companies carry out these upgrades, we are working hard to ensure all residents will stay connected and have a reliable service by moving to new digital products.”

A BT spokesperson “We want to reassure our customers that no one will be left without a landline if they want one, and we have solutions in place to meet their needs.

“For most people the switch to BT’s new home phone service, Digital Voice, will be as simple as connecting your home phone to your router instead of the socket on the wall. And for customers without broadband, we will provide a dedicated landline service allowing them to use their home phone in the same way they do today.”