Study Claims Poor Broadband and Mobile Drives People Out of UK Rural Areas

A new Strand Partners survey of 4,000 members of the UK public, which was commissioned by broadband and mobile providers Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2), has claimed that over a third of rural residents (or 66% of “young people“) are likely to be considering a move away to a town or city in the next 12 months. Poor internet connectivity is one of the key drivers for this.

According to the survey, the young people who are looking to leave rural areas claim that the main driving forces behind this include a lack of career opportunities (30%), poor access to services (25%) and a lack of “high-quality connectivity” (24%).

The research finds that many rural residents are struggling to access the internet, with 48% of those living in rural areas experiencing connectivity problems at least “a few times a week“, although the survey makes no attempt to define this (i.e. what kind of connectivity problems and are they related to network operators or devices within the home etc.?).

In addition, some 51% of rural Britons said their ability to work from home is negatively impacted by “poor connectivity“, with 30% claiming to not have adequate connectivity to work remotely at all. But the survey didn’t attempt to answer whether those surveyed could have perhaps found a better service via a different mobile or broadband provider. The survey only seems to consider the user’s existing experience and not wider network availability / choices or whether alternatives, like Starlink, might be viable.

Finally, 57% of rural residents were found to be worried that the departure of young people could make rural areas less desirable and lead to businesses pulling planned investments from the countryside. But VMO2 does make the point that the £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project and the £5bn Project Gigabit scheme are working to improve rural 4G and gigabit-broadband cover.

However, the real purpose of this survey is to act as another vehicle for VMO2 to encourage the new UK Labour-led government to ensure that their Planning and Infrastructure Bill makes it “faster and easier to deliver essential new mobile and broadband infrastructure” (details here and here). For example, VMO2 notes how planning applications for new 4G and 5G mobile masts can take over 6 months to be approved on average.

Jeanie York, CTO of Virgin Media O2, said:

“Our research shows that poor connectivity is pushing Britain’s countryside into crisis. From deserted high streets to fewer job opportunities and issues accessing essential services, rural residents are telling us loud and clear that poor connectivity is hampering their daily lives.

The industry has a £1 billion plan to improve rural connectivity, but the Shared Rural Network relies on collaboration between industry partners, the UK Government, planning authorities and landowners.

Alongside existing investment, we need better rules in place to make it easier and faster for the industry to deliver what we promised to disconnected rural communities. The government must implement its Planning and Infrastructure Bill as a matter of urgency. It’s the only way to empower a new generation of rural innovators and revitalise high streets and communities across the countryside.”

Boosting rural deployments via planning reform and other changes is definitely something that network operators, as well as those suffering from the poorest levels of digital connectivity, might welcome. But the new government will also have to tread carefully, given the current and somewhat growing opposition – at the local level – to the deployment of new poles (telegraph poles) for running fibre optic lines.

Similar gripes are often also levelled against new mobile masts. But a lot of related planning applications for those can also be held up by frivolous or vexatious complaints, often coming from people who don’t even live in the affected area.

Suffice to say that striking the right balance on such issues remains fraught with difficulty, while completely trusting network operators to only ever do the right thing inside a community may be unwise (some do and others will try to force poles into private gardens etc.).