Martial Arts Mania

After much fanfare about the ‘Broadband for All’ plan under the Digital Britain initiative, which aims at providing broadband to each household in Britain by 2012, comes some sobering news. It has been revealed to The Telegraph by Lord Carter, communications minister, that rural areas, comprising of about a fourth of the nation, may be unable to reap the benefits of this plan due to a lack of economic viability.

While the communications minister has taken this long to openly accept the fact, the same outcome had already been predicted in the Digital Britain report, which stated that the key players in rural areas would be mobile and satellite broadband providers. However, even this may be of no comfort to those living in these areas, as three mobile broadband has already warned that rural mobile broadband may not take off – again, for lack of economic viability.

Rural areas are suffering greatly due to the absence of high-speed broadband connectivity that urban centres enjoy. Rural businesses cannot begin to compete with their urban counterparts; schooling is compromised for the many children who are unable to do something as simple as completing homework online; and neighbourhoods are being torn apart as more families elect to move to homes with broadband.

These issues were brought up by the president of the Country Land and Business Association when he remarked on the impact of the lack of broadband connectivity on rural life. He also said that the latest news on the ‘Broadband for All’ initiative has been met with growing anger and discontent, as rural areas suffer both economically and socially from this loss.