The first report into the economic impact of broadband technology has found a growing divide in Scotland. Lack of service competition in rural areas means that faster connections are not being made available:


Unfortunately The Scotsman's article raises concern over an issue that is far from restricted to Scotland and in fact spans much of the UK.

Rural exchanges often suffer from a lack of development, while the UK's most prevalent ADSL broadband technology gets slower the further away you reside from it. Most residents in rural areas often live some distance from the exchange.

Elsewhere the report hails the overall economic impact broadband has had in Scotland, highlighting room for improvement. Sadly it offers no real solution for those that live too far from their exchange to get a faster service. Forthcoming ADSL2+ technology may bring a slight improvement, but nothing significant.