Being digital

The Government will shortly tell us whether a bid for vital new investment in Devon and Somerset's Broadband network has been approved.

If successful it will mean that by 2015 around 836,000 additional local businesses and homes will have super-fast Broadband and almost all of us will have access speeds at the key level of 2mbps. Last week I spoke in the Commons to give our bid a firm final push.

Broadband first came to Britain in 1990 and in rapid order has gone from a peripheral luxury to a necessity — vital to our personal communications, to business and for access to public services.

It matters to us all, but especially within rural communities where digital remoteness is typically compounded by poor physical infrastructure.

Nationally the situation is far from perfect — according to a recent study by Oxford University the UK is not yet 'ready for the online applications of tomorrow'.

In our rural communities we are at a particular disadvantage and I have received many representations from towns and villages across my constituency concerned about poor internet access. This is not surprising — the Commission for Rural Communities has estimated that whilst 60% of urban populations have access to high-speed cable, in our villages and hamlets this figure is just 1.5%.

According to research by the House of Commons Library a third of my constituents have 'low' internet access speeds compared with just 1.8% of those living in Hammersmith.

I believe the way forward must be for a variety of flexible approaches to providing proper coverage to our rural communities including cable (run through existing ducts and along telephone polls where possible), wireless and satellite. This approach will require real local engagement – let's hope that the Government provides the money to allow that to happen.