13th December 2011

A Freedom of Information request made by the Countryside Alliance shows that government plans to bring fast broadband to rural areas throughout the UK have been stalled.

Last year the Government named four areas that would receive pilot broadband tests with the results to roll our nationwide but the request revealed that none of the areas had received any funding and no companies had been appointed to work on the new network infrastructure.

Alice Barnard, Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance told the BBC “It has been over a year since these pilots were set up and the people who live in areas with no or unreliable broadband coverage haven’t seen any improvement, Unless more is done to simplify the process of acquiring and implementing rural broadband projects, the digital divide will continue to grow and the money pledged by the Coalition will remain all but worthless.”

While rural areas in Northern Ireland appears to be ahead of rest of the UK we need to make sure that rural communities are not left behind in the rural revolution.

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