Published by the Commission for Rural Communities. The report (CRC 04) is available from Commission for Rural Communities Publications, PO Box 125, Wetherby LS23 7EP Tel: 0870 120 6466, Fax: 0870 120 6467

‘Our country and its people prospering in the knowledge economy…  Increasing by £1 billion the investment in science…and ending the digital divide by bringing broadband technology to every home in Britain that wants it by 2008.’
-- Tony Blair, Labour Party Conference speech, 28 September 2004

In April 2004, when BT pledged to extend broadband coverage to 99.6% of the population, it was tempting to proclaim the beginning of the end of the digital divide between urban and rural Britain. Yet as broadband technologies and platforms evolve, old divisions persist and new ones are created. As broadband becomes more of an essential and everyday part of daily life, this unevenness in its rollout and use needs to be tackled with fresh urgency. 

Many rural communities are already using broadband to strengthen social networks, develop new kinds of organisation and access a far wider range of economic opportunities. But it may also bring threats.   From online retail to an invasion of home-workers, broadband can become a factor in a set of wider social and economic changes in rural areas.  Some of the key questions about the future of broadband are technological: Will fibre or wireless connections dominate?  How much bandwidth will there be?  What will people use it for?  But just as importantly, we need to understand the relationship between broadband and wider aspects of rural life.  What changes will broadband help and hinder within rural economies, societies and environments?

This report seeks to address these questions.   It traces the rise of broadband before exploring the issues it raises today for rural areas.  It then goes on to explore three possible scenarios for rural broadband in 2020, with the twin aims of dramatising a variety of future directions and helping rural stakeholders to think creatively about the more immediate responses these futures may require.