Apparently the UK is lagging when it comes to uptake of super-fast broadband with only 4% of households signed up, which is a surprise given how much time we all spend on-line, especially shopping... but that's another blog entirely. However, if there's one other thing that we Brits love it's a pub-table debate and this gets the opinions racing - the people who want to go super-fast can't get access and there's an over-abundance of access elsewhere.
Looking at a wealth map of the UK it's notable that areas such as Scotland, Yorkshire and Wales are doing pretty well thank-you-very-much. However, these (speaking very generally) areas tend to be more rural and the population is spread out to a much greater degree - not the first place that our broadband suppliers look at when laying the new network, despite the fact that there is clearly a market with money to spend. Perhaps time for a re-think of that cost model guys...? BT have announced their next swathe with Cornwall and Scotland featuring prominently, so there is hope.
Densely populated inner-city areas tend, again as a generalisation, to be poorer and take-up of the new services will be lower - something the government has been criticised on recently. The main issue is that most major cities already have very good provision whilst rural areas fall further behind. Given the changes to our demography and the boom in mobile workforce, this all seems a little short-sighted. That said, seems someone still envies what we've got!
