The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has criticised Ofcom's recent 'Nations & Regions Communications Market 2008 (May)' report (original news) for claiming that the broadband divide between rural and urban areas had disappeared, which they state "beggars belief".

The report suggests that the take-up of broadband in rural areas is now higher than in the UK's cities. However, rural economy experts believe the report fails to take into account that broadband connections often do not deliver the high speeds advertised, and also that many rural businesses cannot get broadband at all because they are too far from their local telephone exchange:


We aired similar concerns in our coverage of the report, though many mainstream media outlets appeared to take the comments made by Ofcom's chief too literally, instead of seeing the bigger picture:


This is simply not the case, with many of those living in rural areas suffering from far slower speeds and being left at a serious disadvantage. In addition, putting aside people that still can't get a connection; those who can will often find that cheaper unbundled (LLU) lines do not even reach them. This results in higher service costs for lower performance.