Shadow Innovation and Science Minister Chi Onwurah has accused the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition of failing to deliver sufficient broadband connectivity to rural communities.

The Labour MP argued digital infrastructure is "critical" to the national economy, but claimed the UK government has not managed to improve broadband provision away from urban centres.

Her comments came in response to a recent report from Ofcom that showed 14 per cent of households currently receive speeds of less than 2Mbps - the benchmark that the coalition is aiming to make available to virtually all households by 2015.

Super-fast broadband with download capabilities of more than 24Mbps can currently be accessed by 58 per cent of residential properties, although BT is planning to connect two-thirds of homes to the technology by the end of 2014.

Furthermore, while mobile broadband services are continuing to grow in popularity, Ofcom found 27 per cent of households - most of which are located in rural areas - are unable to take advantage of the service.

"This is a barrier to economic growth," Ms Onwurah remarked.

She noted that under the Labour government, plans were afoot to deliver universal broadband access by the end of 2012, but the Conservative-led coalition scrapped that goal and is consequently "abandoning the rural economy".

Helen Goodman MP, Labour's Shadow Minister for the Communications Industries, added: "Without universal broadband rural communities will be left behind and the digital divide will grow.

"The communications industries have a major part to play in economic growth and digital inclusion but the government is undermining that."

As well as identifying issues relating to lack of broadband provision in rural locations, the Ofcom study showed data usage has increased substantially in recent years.

According to the regulator, the average fixed broadband customer now uses 17Gbps of data every month, equivalent to downloading more than 11 full-length films. 

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08th November 2011

probably due in part to her work at ofcom and helping it become the useless regulator it is. I hate it when politicians blame the other side for their own shortcomings, they all do it. Fact remains that this country is going down the league tables, and the head start we got with cheap 1st generation access through our phone network is being lost, as the telcos keep patching it up and trying to make it faster instead of building new fibre networks like the other countries, and ofcom stands back and lets them get away with it. Chi has had plenty of chances to help rural people. But she hasn't. so its the pot calling the kettle.