It is understood that the finalisation of the proposals made by the rural development organisation would arrive within the coming three weeks with more details following shortly.

However, currently it is quiet obscure how the proposals were going to work in those regions where broadband services are not available, unless the seeking of expensive and arguably flexible satellite broadband services were forced on everybody bu the proposals.

It is widely perceived that satellite broadband services were considerably better than dial up internet services, provided the prices for the former was reduced significantly. This is as a matter of fact, expected as fresh services would sprout through 2010.

Experts believe that if satellite broadband can be taken as the viable alternative, the main stumbling block would be the exorbitant charges for the installation and the hardware, which can be to a good extent alleviated by the special broadband grants advocated by the CLA.

This attitude of the broadband service providing company is more than apparent in the voice of its chief executive, Steve Robertson that the company could not rollout a comprehensive fibre optic broadband network in the country without the government’s financial back up, even though this was its goal.

Robertson, who is in fact the chief Executive officer of the local access network of BT – BT Openreach – meanwhile also voiced the support of his company for the Labour government’s proposed monthly tax of 50p on all fixed phone lines in the United Kingdom. He commented that the implementation of the tax would indeed be a welcome contribution for the funding of the next generation broadband network rollout in the country, though it would seldom go all the way.

Robertson also said that the government must help in the financing of the next generation fibre optic broadband for all rollout plan, without which broadband speeds of the rural areas would not be able to catch up with that of the urban areas.

On the other hand, Henry Aubrey-Fletcher the president of the CLA, has stated that the association was pleased to see BT publicly calling for the support of the government to help it implement the next generation broadband for all network in the country.

CLA says that Ofcom’s report fails to reveal the real facts such as low connection speeds, inferior service, unavailability of business broadband services which are so commonplace in rural areas while broadband services in cities offer higher speeds, reliable connection and better service.

William Worsley of CLA has commented:

“Suggestions that the broadband divide has closed are simply not true. The digital divide is about availability and the fact remains that in a significant number of rural areas, ADSL broadband access is simply not available. The existing internet access speeds are often appallingly slow, hitting the viability of businesses.

Small rural businesses are really suffering because of this broadband divide. We are receiving an increasing number of calls from rural businesses asking for help because they cannot compete on an equal footing with often close neighbours who benefit from a cheap and reliable ADSL service.”

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