Now comes the news that Virgin is to invest £3billion in additional broadband infrastructure – but it looks as if they only benificiaries will be those who live in the towns and cities already serviced by Virgin.
And the Country and Land Association has said the decision 'could exacerbate the rural-urban digital divide'.
A spokesman said it was a pity that private companies are not putting the infrastructure in place to benefit rural business. "What is clear is that rural areas will not be able to access speeds in excess of 30Mbit/s or 50Mbit/s for some time to come. All this does is show that the rural economy is neglected once again."
We know that rural businesses, schools and homes suffer from poor broadband connections and very little seems to be happening to change that. According to the Federation of Small Businesses, 49% of rural small businesses are dissatisfied with the quality of their broadband provision, which is seen as critical to their future success, and the current lack of broadband infrastructure serving small firms threatens the expansion of the rural economy, which is worth around £400bn and includes 28% of all UK firms.
There's been a lot of talk about 'joined up thinking' over the last decade of government. But it appears the latest broadband plans don't involve thinking, let alone that thinking being joined up.
