Broadband in rural areas
22 May 2009
On Tuesday 19th May I attended an event titled, "Policy making for places - rural proofing the work of government". The event was organised by the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC). The event was to launch its rural proofing policy toolkit. A copy of the rural proofing toolkit can be downloaded here. The Panel has also devised its own policy development toolkit to ensure the consumer interest is taken into account when organisations develop its communications policy. The toolkit has been embedded across Ofcom and has been successful in encouraging a greater focus on consumer issues.
Those attending the event were a mix of policy advisors and practitioners, from the national to the local authority and borough level. They represented planning departments, Primary Care Trusts, UK tourism, the forestry commission, National Assemblies and Governments to name but a few.
Huw-Iranca Davies, the Minister for Rural Affairs, gave the keynote speech and set out DEFRA's current policy priorities. These are:
- Development of Rural Economies
- Rural Broadband
- Access to Affordable Housing
- Address fuel poverty
- And provide services for an ageing population
It was interesting to hear that both Huw Irranca Davies and Stuart Burgess (the Chairman of the Commission for Rural Communities) cited broadband as an essential service for rural areas. The Minister said, "(those who live in rural areas) don't expect something different, they expect the same and the same access to essential services". He also said that his department was working closely with DCLG, BERR and the CRC to ensure rural areas of the UK do not fall behind in terms of broadband access.
Stuart Burgess talked about the difficulties of different legislation stopping people accessing a decent broadband network. He cited the example of Alston Moor. Here members of the community are trying to connect into and share the NHS fibre backbone, but due to data protection and security reasons the NHS will not allow it. He argued that services like tele-medicine could save the NHS many thousands of pounds in the locality and not allowing access to the network due to these concerns was a wrong-headed way to look at the issue. Stuart Burgess also argued that quality access to a broadband network is essential to a local economy in today's connected society.
We as a Panel work to ensure rural needs taken into account when communications policy is developed across government and the regulator. We have published a report that maps the current UK community schemes that are rolling-out next generation broadband networks. We are also looking at the issue of mobile phone coverage in the UK and what impact mobile coverage not-spots have on people.