Rural communities deserve fast broadband
Abstract (Summary)
Broadband allows young families to live and work in villages, thus halting rural depopulation and keeping communities alive. It has become almost a fourth utility, ike water or electricity. And it is increasingly difficult to sell a home without broadband – schoolchildren are expected to do homework online, and grandmothers rely on Skype to speak to their grandchildren in New Zealand.Copyright Reed Business Information UK Oct 15, 2010
(Sumber : ProQuest International Journal Protal))
| [Headnote] |
| Modern communications are the key to the prosperity of the countryside |
“I am often asked about my focus in Parliament and when I say “broadband”, people’s faces fall.
The reactions I get imply that they had expected a conversation about high politics but are instead getting electrics and plumbing.
However, the world is relying more and more on broadband, and yet it is concentrated in cities.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to run a business without broadband. DEFRA is putting more and more of its forms online. New dairies face problems if they lose broadband access. B&Bs need to advertise on the internet.
In my constituency of Penrith and the Border, there are more self-employed people and micro-businesses than in any other part of Britain. If we don’t get broadband our economy will be at risk.
Throughout rural communities, post offices and clinics are closing. We need to travel ever further, and bus services and roads are poor. Yet fast broadband could help. Patients could, for example, see a skin specialist in Kent down a video link without ever leaving home. District nurses and GPs could stay in more regular touch with outlying villages. Children unable to stay for after-school activities could iearn online.
Broadband allows young families to live and work in villages, thus halting rural depopulation and keeping communities alive. It has become almost a fourth utility, ike water or electricity. And it is increasingly difficult to sell a home without broadband – schoolchildren are expected to do homework online, and grandmothers rely on Skype to speak to their grandchildren in New Zealand.
This is why, in my constituency, 1 am determined that we get broadband for everyone, and fast broadband for the majority of constituents, by the end of 2012.
Until very recently this would have been technically and financially unimaginable. Yet just last week, I was discussing a village in a remote valley in Yorkshire that has been connected by a wi-fi hub and then a microwave beam to fibre optics in a school 12 miles away. Things are, it seems, coming together.
But it is communities that will make it possible. Government and an MP can help by bringing in fibre cables, opening them up for public access, and encouraging investment. But in the end, particularly in the most remote areas, it will be down to communities to connect to their homes.
Every day I am engaging with discussion about light waves, business models, and new uses of the internet. Every day is bringing me into contact with another Cumbrian community showing astonishing energy and determination. That is why, when asked what I am focused on, I reply with a big grin: “Broadband”.
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