This week sees The Rural and Regional Broadband Conference organised by the The Access to Broadband Campaign (ABC) which seeks to find out how high-speed internet services can be made accessible and affordable for all members of British society.
The UK government remains committed to the objective of making the UK the leading broadband market in the G7 by 2005 (see
Blair Reiterates Commitment To Broadband). After a slow start, the country now ranks third in the list (May 2003) and businesses, telecoms companies, ISPs and central bodies are devising strategies to help it achieve supremacy.
According to Oftel, there are now more than two million broadband connected homes in the UK and connections are running at 35,000 every week (see UK Broadband Reaches Two Million Homes). However, many remote and rural locations remain disenfranchised and The Countryside Agency has been particularly vocal in calling for this “digital divide” between town and country to be bridged (see Countryside Appeals For Broadband Injection).
The ABC is contributing to this objective by working in the localities to develop community broadband solutions and the conference, to be held on Wednesday, will look into ways in which services can be rolled out in rural areas. The keynote speech will be delivered by Dr Peter Cochrane, co-founder of ConceptLads and former chief technologist at BT.
