Poor Broadband and Mobile Discourages Moves to UK Countryside

A new Opinium survey of 2,008 UK adults (79% from urban areas) has found that 9 million Brits (17%) won’t move to the countryside for fear of being cut off by poor broadband. Meanwhile 25% of existing rural residents say they struggle to make any mobile calls at home and 38% complained of slow or unreliable internet.

The survey, which was commissioned by uSwitch.com, also found that an estimated 13 million city dwellers would like to live in the countryside in the future. However, for the 37% who wouldn’t, more than half (58%) are put off by the “thought of poor broadband connections and patchy phone signal.”

Mind you it appears as if poor transport links still trumped concerns over broadband and mobile connectivity.

Top issues with living in the countryside

Geographic mobile coverage is indeed notoriously flaky in rural areas. Ofcom’s latest report (here) noted that 2G, 3G and 4G (voice) coverage by all operators combined only extends to 77% of UK premises, while 6% of premises are not being served by any single operator. Suffice to say that there will be plenty of notspots and weak signal areas, which also vary depending on whose network you’re using.

However the story for fixed line broadband connectivity is more complex. At present it’s estimated that “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+ capable) lines are within reach of more than 95% of premises (expected to hit 98% by 2020) and around 3% of premises would struggle to get speeds of 10Mbps+. Many rural areas should thus be able to get a better service, but we note that around 40% of premises still connect via old slow ADSL lines.

A number of other factors can impact take-up of faster services, such as the higher prices involved, as well as customers being locked into long contracts with their existing ISP (can’t upgrade yet) and a lack of general awareness (locals don’t always know what’s available) or interest in the new connectivity (if you have a decent ADSL2+ speed and only basic needs then you might feel less inclined to upgrade).

So as ever if you do want to move into the countryside then it pays to do a little research first, that way you can identify roughly which areas do benefit from good broadband speeds and decent mobile coverage. The downside is you might have to be a bit more flexible with where you move to and don’t get too attached to a specific area, particularly if it can’t deliver on what you need.