UK broadband digital divide getting worse

High-speed internet access for all is still a long way off

The UK's broadband 'digital divide', defined as the gap between the fast internet haves and have-nots, is deeper than was thought and may be getting even deeper, newly published research has revealed.

According to a study from Point Topic, all the top 10 local authority areas with the highest broadband density are in London and the home counties.

The 10 with the lowest density are in the rural areas of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, along with West Somerset which includes the wide open spaces of Exmoor.

Household density is highest in prosperous suburban areas, but business use drives the total up in areas like Westminster and Tower Hamlets. This explains the top 10 range from 25 broadband lines per 100 people in Wandsworth, South London, to 20 in South Buckinghamshire.

Low density areas include Dumfries and Galloway, with 6.3 lines per 100 down to Eilean Siar in the Western Isles with 4.9. The figures exclude one of the UK's smallest local authorities, the City of London, which has a very high density because of business use.

Based on detailed mapping of broadband density right down to the postcode level, the figures show density in terms of the number of broadband lines per 100 population as at mid-2005.

They include DSL lines provided over BT's network and cable modem connections supplied by cable TV networks.

Point Topic's earlier analysis suggested that some areas outside the South East, for example in the prosperous areas of South Wales, were up among the leaders for broadband density.

This was particularly due to the success of the cable companies in selling broadband to existing customers. However, the analyst firm noted that this is changing because DSL is growing faster than cable modems and is reducing the advantage of the cable TV areas.

As far as internet density as a whole is concerned, the 'digital divide' is less deep than it is for broadband only, but follows the same pattern.

As more and more families migrate from dial-up to broadband, having internet access will become increasingly synonymous with broadband, the report noted.

"The results of Point Topic's research show a long way to go to achieve the goal of internet access for all," the study stated.

"Britain's most advanced boroughs are already around the density levels achieved by the most advanced nations, such as South Korea, The Netherlands and Denmark.

"Overcoming the digital divide will mean bringing the whole country up to that level and higher."