DECEMBER 2007: People living in rural parts of the country have much less choice ofbroadband providers, are likely to get slower speeds and pay adifferent price, according to research.
With super-fast broadband set to be introduced, there are fears the situation could get worse for country dwellers. They could be waiting decades for the same service city-dwellers enjoy, it is claimed. Ian Fogg, an analyst with Jupiter Research, says there is going to have to be an acceptance that broadband will be faster in the cities and the model of equal access will have to be adapted.“Fibre costs such a fortune to roll out that it may take decades to get to ubiquitous coverage in rural areas,” he said.2008 sees the roll-out of the next generation of ADSL, with speeds of up to 24Mbps – but speeds will still depend on how far away you are from the exchange.
