Communities could help themselves to broadband in rural areas

According to a recent report the coalition government is relying on its ‘big society’ idea to try and get communities to rally together to try and spread broadband access in rural areas.

As many people know the issue relating to broadband in rural areas in the UK has been a hot topic over the past couple of years, with many businesses and residents in rural parts of the UK finding that they are unable to get access to adequate broadband services, which puts them at a real disadvantage compared to those that have access to high speed broadband.

This is something that the former Labour government and the new coalition government had pledged to rectify with the rollout of universal broadband. However, David Cameron’s coalition government also wants to get its ‘big society’ idea in on the action by getting communities to rally together to try and sort out broadband access within their areas.

The big society idea was part of the Conservative election campaign and was centred around communities getting together to set up things such as schools and libraries. David Cameron called this the ‘big society’ idea, and it seems as though this is a concept that the government believes could help to set up broadband in rural areas.

Secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs Caroline Spelman said: “This is a community opportunity. There are some excellent examples of the big society at work in Northumberland and Rutland, where communities have come together to ensure that good broadband access is available to all.”

Source – Computer Weekly