Broadband speeds are increasing but rural towns lag behind
Rural areas of the UK are lagging behind cities and towns as Boris Johnson’ government brings the nation’s digital divide into focus.
A report by Ofcom, the UK’s telecoms regulator, showed that around 155,000 UK properties can not access decent broadband. These homes will be able to request coverage from BT from March 2020, the report said.
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The report also found “big differences” in the choice available to mobile customers in urban and rural areas, only two thirds of the UK is covered by good 4G reception from all four networks.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has talked about Britain’s digital divide and rural communities being “left behind”. The Conservatives included a pledge to “bring full fibre and gigabit-capable broadband to every home and business across the UK by 2025”.
Broadband was also a focal point of the Labour Party’s election manifesto, which promised the nationalisation of BT’s Openreach. John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, had vowed to deliver free full-fibre broadband for every UK household.
BT shares spiked as much as 10 per cent the morning after the general election as it became clear the Conservatives had won a decisive victory.
The report found one in ten homes now have access to full-fibre broadband, the fastest connection available. This is up from 6 per cent last year.
Superfast broadband coverage, considered decent by Ofcom, stands at 95 per cent while the number of homes without access to a “decent fixed broadband service” dropped to 155,000.
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“This year we’ve seen full-fibre broadband grow at its fastest ever rate, and all four mobile networks launch 5G,” said Yih-Choung Teh, Strategy and Research Group Director at Ofcom.
The UK is also browsing more with broadband usage per connection rising by almost a third from 240GB last year to 315GB. That is the equivalent of watching up to four hours of HD video content a day.
An Openreach spokesperson said: “This week we made full fibre broadband available to our two-millionth home, meaning we’re still on track to reach four million front doors by the end of March 2021.”
“At the same time, there are still more than 14 million homes and businesses in the UK that could order a better service over our network today, but who haven’t yet upgraded.” they said.