Posted: 12th Jul, 2010 By: MarkJ

The results from 453 respondents to our latest monthly survey have revealed that 61.8% want the UK government to support a roll-out of next generation superfast broadband internet access services to rural areas first (outside-in approach), with just 38.1% voting in favour of the inside-out (urban areas first) solution.
How should the publicly funded rollout of faster fibre optic broadband be handled?
Rural areas first (outside-in) - 61.8%
Urban areas first (inside-out) - 38.1%
Which is more important?
Focus on faster fibre optic broadband deployments - 43.7%
Do both - 36.2%
Get basic 2Mbps broadband to everybody first - 20%
Most people clearly recognise the importance of using public money to help connect rural areas with the wider revolution in superfast broadband internet services. The benefits of delivering a modern broadband infrastructure to rural areas, many of which struggle with slow speeds (0.5-1Mbps) or have no internet connectivity whatsoever, are often overlooked.
Deploying superfast services into remote and rural villages would help them to keep pace with the modern world, improve communications, bring vital new services and offer local businesses a powerful platform for revolutionising local trade.
Heavily populated urban areas will simply not require the same level of public funding and are more likely to benefit from private investment. Strong examples of this already exist, such as Virgin Media's plan to cover half of the country with its new 100Mbps service by the end of next year and BT's aim to reach 66% of the population with 40-100Mbps services by 2015.
This month's new survey simply asks "
Do you know the advertised speed of your broadband connection?" and questions whether consumers are happy with what they receive.
Vote Here.