Rural Diaries – country life, the countryside and rural issues

Posted by Sally on June 4th, 2008 in Country Living, Rural Resources

Just 3 days after my little rant about the Ofcom rural broadband report being unrealistic we now see just how wrong they got it.

The Times Online reported yesterday – Rural Britain loses out in battle of broadband which of course is no surprise to us in rural areas but I am left wondering why it’s a surprise to Ofcom.

Remember the Ofcom report where the chief executive said “the report highlights a closing of the geographic digital divide in the UK.”

The Times are referring to a report by thinkbroadband.com which states that “This data, while showing the digital divide does exist, shows that on average at this time the gulf is not insurmountable.” So perhaps there is good news for us rural slowies … then again perhaps not.

Going back to the Times report we see that “After BT started letting rival companies install their own equipment on the telephone network – a process known as local-loop unbundling – several companies have begun to replace copper wires with fibre-optic cable. This allows them to offer much faster web connections that do not degrade with distance.”

So we just have to shop around right? Nope, nothing is ever that simple.

Back to Andrew Fergusons comments at thinkbroadband and we see “We all see the adverts promoting 16Mbps or faster broadband services and each one contains a warning about line length affecting the speeds you may get. What is not always clear from the adverts is that the region you live in can also make a difference.”

Here in the North West we see that actual speeds are averaging 3.39 Mbps (let me know which area and I’ll move there because it’s faster than I’m getting).

The Times reports Brendan Dick of BT Scotland as saying “A number of people are talking about higher speeds and that’s going to cost a lot of money. There’s very strong evidence that for the vast majority of the population, what we have meets their need.”

Quite comical considering that the Highlands came out in 43rd place and had an average speed of 2,177Kbps. Didn’t I mention the Highlands in my last post about this, I must be either psychic or a fantastic visionary in communications needs.

Mr Dick, we in rural communities would like to see that very strong evidence, as we simply don’t agree. I invite you to come and spend a week running my rural business with me, with the slow internet connection, the items I am unable to download due to time outs and visit my neighbours who simply cannot get broadband yet.

Perhaps Mr Dick you associate rural business with jam making and wool sweaters knitted by old ladies in country cottages, hence our needs currently being met? I have customers all over the UK and I rely solely on the internet to run my business from our rural farm.

I can understand that BT is having a tough time lately, their profit for 2007 fell to a mere 1.74 billion pounds and they could only announce a 5% rise in its full-year dividend, how will they cope?