Prince of Wales Charity Identifies Broadband as a UK Rural Weak Spot

The Prince’s Countryside Fund is currently said to be working on a new ‘Village Survival Guide‘, which comes after the charity surveyed 3,000 people in rural parts of the United Kingdom and found that better broadband and mobile (4G) coverage was one of three changes that such communities desperately need.

At present it’s estimated that the Broadband Delivery UK programme has already helped to extend “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) class connectivity to cover 95% of premises and this could reach around 98% by 2020. Meanwhile the Government have said that they want Mobile operators to deliver 95% geographic coverage by 2022 (EE hopes to achieve this with 4G by December 2020 and is currently at 91%, although others are further behind).

Avid readers will also know that last week saw Ofcom and the Government outline their plans for ensuring that every home and business in the UK could access a Gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP/H) style “full fibre” broadband ISP network by 2033 (here and here), which will focus on delivering to rural areas at the same time as urban ones.

Nevertheless there will always be those who end up stuck at the back of the pack, where they can be left to wait for years before local connectivity improves. Needless to say that the broadband and mobile problem in remote rural areas isn’t going to be completely resolved overnight and until some solid funding, as well as cross party support, is put behind the 2033 aspirations then we will continue to have doubts about deliverability.

The other two key changes that rural communities say they want to see is a reduction in the closured of key services (e.g. banks, post offices, pubs etc.) and fairer funding in order to compensate for the higher costs of rural improvements.

In response the charity told The Times (paywall) that they planned to produce a Village Survival Guide, which will highlight examples of how such rural communities can go about “building their resilience“.

A Spokesperson for the Prince’s Countryside Fund said:

“We are planning on producing the guide, with feedback from other stakeholders; it will include practical guidance on how to set up a community business, information on who can offer specific advice and a ‘top ten resilience checklist’ which will break down, based on the research, the key assets that make rural communities sustainable.”

The guide itself isn’t available yet, although it’s expected to suggest measures such as community hubs with free WiFi (ideally needs a good broadband services to be present first) and more travelling “pop-up” services (e.g. mobile banks and chemists).

Sadly it will take more than a guide to solve some of the fundamental economic and infrastructure problems that exist in rural communities, although those with the money or time to invest could always consider the social approach to broadband installation by joining forces with community ISPs like B4RN.

In other cases it’s often possible to make use of certain government grants or local voucher schemes, such as the Better Broadband Subsidy Scheme (here) or Openreach’s Community Fibre Partnerships, in order to pro-actively pool investment and improve local connectivity. In all cases another good piece of advice is to pressure your local MP and get them involved in the battle.