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.
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