David Borrow
Rural broadband
Access to Broadband is one of those issues that has suddenly appeared on the political radar from nowhere. Only a minority use the internet on a regular basis, so for most people the advantages of broadband internet access is pretty meaningless.
This is not true for the business community, as more and more communications are made over the internet. For small businesses the advantages of broadband with its flat rate charges for computer connections that are "always on" is very attractive. Large companies can afford the cost of an individual connection in the absence of a local network. The current policy issue is the availability of "affordable" broadband.
By October 2002, 67% of the UK population had access to affordable broadband using cable, fixed wireless or the ADSL system. In May of this year over 2 million broadband connections had been made with 35,000 new connections being made each week. These encouraging figures hide a huge difference between rural and urban areas. In urban centres over 95% have access to broadband. This drops to 58% in suburban areas, 26% in market towns and 7% in rural villages and 1% in remote rural areas.
One advantage of modern IT systems, including the internet, is that business can operate outside the usual commercial areas. Lack of broadband access in rural areas is beginning to put a brake on business growth and there is anecdotal evidence of rural businesses looking to relocate in areas with access to broadband.
The Department of Trade and Industry is responsible for government policy on broadband with DEFRA having a role as the champion of rural areas. Up to now the government has sought a market led approach, but it now need to become much more pro-active if rural Britain is not to lose out.
Improving broadband access in rural areas is likely to focus on the ADSL system using the existing copper wire telephone system. BT say it costs about £200,000 to enable a local telephone exchange for broadband and have set up a registration system for potential users in order to "trigger" the investment necessary. Trigger levels have been set for 1,300 exchanges with 220 already enabled and work underway on 300 more. In my own constituency in Lancashire, three exchanges have been enabled in the past year under the scheme.
Cable networks are unlikely to assist rural areas much more but satellite and wireless systems can have a significant role to play. Regional Development Agencies have the ability to assist in the development of access to broadband and a number of pilot projects have been successful in extending broadband to rural communities. What is clear is that where there is a strong local demand for access, a proactive partnership can often deliver the goods. The Cornwall Act Now Project and the Blewbury Broadband Campaign are examples of what can be done.
The government is committed to bringing broadband access to all schools and using the system extensively in the Health Service. This investment ought to allow local communities to "piggyback" broadband access. Ministers support such an approach but there is little sign of real progress on the ground. There is also confusion over the impact of state aid rules from the EU.
What needs to happen now in the development of a clear policy by the government to enable rural areas to access broadband. We need a clear signal of how much of rural Britain will get access to broadband and a timetable. A route map needs to be drawn up with clear policy levers to show how the policy will be delivered.
