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Rural broadband: the need f FOr most people, a quality internet connection has moved in one generation from being a luxurious novelty to an absolute necessity.
Large parts of Scotland risk being left behind because they lack a fast broadband connection. Rachel Russell reports on the digital divide affecting rural areas.
Technical advances mean not everyone must occupy a costly office to do productive work. Meetings are conducted in the cloud. Many employees prefer to work from home. In personal finance, shopping, interactions with officialdom, education, healthcare and of course business, the world has moved online. And as highstreet bank closures show, we often have no choice but to go online. Increasingly, much of this activity requires a high-speed connection. In December, the Westminster Government, which oversees digital accessibility, pledged that everyone in the UK would have ‘high-speed broadband’ of 10 Mbps by 2020 under a regulatory Universal Service Obligation (USO). But not everyone thinks 10 Mbps – deemed by the industry regulator Ofcom as meeting the requirements of an average family – qualifies as high speed when, for example, commercial transactions and regulatory paperwork are being withdrawn from rural businesses. While broadband is a policy area reserved to Westminster, there are disagreements between London and Edinburgh on how best to address the problem given Scotland’s mountainous terrain and large areas inhabited by small populations. Britain’s fixed-line broadband is largely delivered through the old telephone network. For many, voice and data are still carried via copper wire and
download speeds are influenced by distance from local street cabinets. If the ‘final mile’ exceeds 1.2km, superfast broadband can’t be delivered. That’s less a problem in urban areas where large parts of the network are being progressively replaced by fibre-optic cable, enabling high speeds to multiple addresses. But it’s a big problem for remoter, rural areas and in large parts of Scotland especially. Does this matter? Yes, according to research by Lorna Philip of the
THE vALuE OF A GOOD CONNECTION RuRAl infrastructure is slowly being upgraded to fibre, but there is a long way to go. It is becoming easier for rural consumers to purchase goods online for delivery rather than going to retailers, saving time, energy and transport costs. ‘lifestyle’ homebuyers or retirees have historically been less demanding than those requiring a business connection, but we are seeing more examples of these consumers also expecting satisfactory connection speeds. A good connection increases the saleability of a property – it may sell faster than a similar property lacking a satisfactory internet connection – but it has not, as yet, translated into a higher value or selling price. We had a case where a tenant chose to rent one property, with a connection to
fibre broadband, over another as they required reliable high-speed internet access. The property without a highspeed connection let a month later – essentially costing the owner one month in lost rent. The emergence of high-speed broadband in certain locations in Scotland means there is a disparity between the digital ‘haves’ and ‘havenots’, highlighted when one compares a 0.5 Mbps speed versus 50 Mbps in the same postcode area. Consumers are being influenced by availability, but this still depends on their need and their willingness to compromise on type and location of property. David Corrie david.corrie@galbraithgroup.com 01556 505 003
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University of Aberdeen and her colleagues. “The range of activities routinely undertaken online is increasing, the data requirements of many applications and websites are growing and home broadband is now expected to support multiple device-owning and simultaneous-user households,” they write in a paper entitled The Digital Divide. “A broadband service that meets these expectations is not available to all British households.” Infrastructure improvements bringing fast broadband to consumers have concentrated on densely populated urban areas, creating a ‘two-speed Britain’. And, as the research finds, country dwellers are just as keen on fast broadband as city folk. The challenges involved in getting the ‘final few’ properly connected will require alternative technologies – either mobile or satellite. But despite the rapid take-up of mobile phones in recent years, they have failed to provide an alternative for Scottish homes and businesses. Dr Philip’s report says mobile infrastructure is best across England and worst in Scotland, especially in rural areas. “Across almost a quarter of rural Scotland there is no reliable 2G signal from any operator. Almost half of rural Scotland does not have a reliable 3G signal from any operator. Across half of the Scottish land mass it is impossible to be online, on the move, unless the user finds a Wi-Fi hotspot.”
