Groups unite for campaign over broadband

A number of lobby groups have united to form a coalition, and have now launched a national campaign to address the issue of lack of broadband in rural areas.

Both residents and businesses in rural parts of the UK have expressed concerns over the lack of broadband access, and there have been many reports that have highlighted the disadvantages of having restricted or no access to broadband in these areas. Whilst the government is planning to get broadband to the majority of the country by 2012 there are still concerns that some rural areas will end up missing out.

In order to address this issue a number of lobby groups have now formed a coalition that is aimed at ensuring that all areas have adequate access to broadband services by 2012. In particular the group is focussing on the fact that many government services are now available online, and that the government took it for granted that everyone would be able to access these services because they had broadband access when clearly this was not the case.

The group claims that the ‘final third’ of the country that currently lacks this infrastructure needs to be provided with adequate broadband access. One official from the group said: “The government’s universal service commitment to provide broadband speeds of two megabits per second (Mbps) for all by 2012 will be hard to achieve. Those living in areas known as the Final Third still receive no proper access to broadband, putting them at a severe disadvantage.”

He added: “This campaign calls for faster action on the progress already made so that everyone can benefit from the government’s increasing array of online services.”

Source – FWI