Rural areas ‘left behind’ as government fails to bridge digital divide, MPs warn
Rural communities are being left behind due to the government’s failure to address gaps in the UK’s mobile and broadband coverage, MPs have warned.
A report published today by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) committee said the digital divide between urban and rural areas was marginalising communities and hindering rural business.
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While the report acknowledged that there had been “significant improvement” in coverage, it said mobile and broadband signal was struggling to keep up with growing demand.
The government has vowed to crack down on these so-called not spots, and has brought in a new broadband universal service obligation (USO) to help ensure more even coverage.
But the committee described the measure as “inadequate”, adding that it was not truly universal and its minimum speed of 10Mbps would soon be obsolete.
“Despite improvements in coverage since our predecessor’s report, our inquiry has shown that poor broadband and mobile data services continue to marginalise rural communities, particularly those living in hard to reach areas,” said Defra committee chair Neil Parish.
The committee said it welcomed Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ambition to roll out full-fibre broadband across the country by 2025, but cast doubts on whether this target would be met.
Regulator Ofcom yesterday announced that the broadband rollout had reached 2.5m premises – equivalent to just eight per cent.
Richard Tang, founder and chairman of internet service provider Zen, told City A.M. he was “sceptical” that all premises would be reached by 2025.
“There’s been a lot of political pressure that the UK should be ahead of Europe,” he said. “But even with thousands of new engineers it will be a challenge.”
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A spokesperson for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said: “This government wants to deliver world-class, gigabit-capable digital infrastructure across the country and will announce further details on how we will achieve this as soon as possible.
“We are investing over £650m in full-fibre broadband until the end of 2021 and are committed to creating the right opportunities for investment as we speed up the rollout of this technology.”
Main image credit: Getty