It’s no secret that many rural areas have been left out in the cold when it comes to broadband deployment and infrastructure upgrades. This was supported by a study conducted by the Federation of Small Businesses, which revealed that over 60% of rural businesses suffered from slow broadband speeds.
John Walker, National Chairman of the FSB, stated: “These figures show that many rural firms are still unable to access basic broadband to run their business effectively. It shouldn’t matter where a business is located. With the technology we have today all firms should be able to trade overseas, throughout the UK, and from town to village.”
Environment Secretary Owen Paterson agrees. He emphasised the need for better broadband access in order to invigorate and improve the rural economy. He also made the promise to ‘revolutionalise’ these rural regions by relaxing the planning rules and pushing for broadband rollouts.
Secretary Paterson stated that his priority was speeding up rural broadband. He stated: “The internet has the power to overcome the problem of rural isolation. It can revolutionise rural job opportunities, community life and the whole rural economy. The internet has the power to overcome the problem of rural isolation. It can revolutionise rural job opportunities, community life and the whole rural economy.”
He added: “It’s outrageous that there are still parts of the country where the internet is still painfully slow because they haven’t got broadband yet. I’ve lived in a rural area all my life, so no one needs to tell me that rural England has been was neglected by governments for far too long.”
No comments:
Post a Comment