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Lincs councillor admits lack of broadband is a serious problem
Richard Hardesty noted there has been a "dramatic" rise in online services in recent years.
Richard Hardesty, part of the local authority's Onlincolnshire broadband project, acknowledged the internet has grown rapidly in recent years, coinciding with a "dramatic" rise in online services, reports the Lincolnite.
"A slow broadband connection, or none at all, can pose a serious problem," he stated.
Mr Hardesty's comments come in the wake of research from Ofcom, carried out ahead of its publication of the UK's first interactive fixed-line broadband map, which showed the county is lagging behind much of the rest of the country for internet access.
According to the regulator, Lincolnshire's average broadband speed is 6.5Mbps - significantly lower than the UK-wide figure of 7.5Mbps and the English average of 7.6Mbps.
Almost one in six homes and businesses can only receive speeds of less than 2Mbps, while super-fast broadband - generally considered to offer at least 24Mbps downloads - is available to less than a quarter of properties.
Some 61 per cent of premises across England as a whole can access super-fast speeds.
The results meant Lincolnshire was placed in the second bottom of five categories used by Ofcom to rate each county's broadband provision.
According to Mr Hardesty, the research is broadly in line with previous figures compiled by Lincolnshire County Council on behalf of the Onlincolnshire initiative.
"The county council is already arguing strongly for more investment from broadband providers in areas where services are poor," he said.
"It also wants to convince the government to spend some of the funds it is making available for rural areas over the next five years on better digital connections in Lincolnshire."
One provider that has already committed to improving its broadband services in the county is BT, which announced last month that it is set to roll out fibre optic access to another 31,000 properties in the area. The work is expected to be completed in 2012.