Here is a broadband story which caught my eye in this morning's Metro. An Ofcom report released today has announced that rural households are more likely to have broadband than inner city residents. In fact, almost two thirds (59% )of rural households have broadband compared to a just 57% of urban homes. It's the first time ever that people living in the countryside have had a higher rate than those who live in our cities. Only four years ago city slickers were twice as likely to have a broadband connection.
A blog on the Hermes Project website has made a suggestion that this is because of the rapid expansion of LLU (local loop unbundling) networks into less highly populated areas. The BBC website has quoted Ed Richards, the chief executive of Ofcom as saying: "Our report highlights a closing of the geographical digital divide in the UK. Rural households are today as well connected to broadband as their urban neighbours".
According to the report the English spend more time on the internet than in any of the UK’s other nations, spending an average of 12.4 hours on the internet, and 77 per cent of their time online is used to send email, instant messages and network. The report also included many other interesting technology trends which are developing in the UK.
Here are a few highlights:
- There has been a rapid growth in mobile technology - you only have to glance around on trains these days to see most people tapping away on their laptops using the free wireless connection which is now readily available.
- A fifth of our households now rely solely on a mobile phone, and in Greater Manchester almost a third (28%) of homes use a mobile and have no fixed line telephone.
- 3G phones are now becoming the most popular types of mobiles.
- Dundee is the city with the highest levels of 3G phone use, with almost a third of people using one.
- One in five UK adults have surfed the web on the move, with the highest use occurring in London and Birmingham. In Devon and Cornwall, where 3G phone coverage is pretty sparse, just 7% of people have used the mobile internet.
- 30% of the nation are using the internet to catch up on missed television with services like BBC iplayer
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