Low internet use in areas of Britain with poor broadband, study finds
Slow broadband is being blamed for areas of Britain not having access to online services, including BBC iPlayer, according to research from King’s College London.
The research took logs from half of the country’s population with rates of use of BBC’s iPlayer and found that the areas that had the worst internet access also used the internet the least. The study involved looking at records of over 1.9 billion sessions on iPlayer by 32 million monthly users between the period May 2013 and January 2014.
The study identified the Isle of Wight and South Ayrshire, as well as East Riding of Yorkshire and Midlothian areas amongst others, as areas of low usage of online services. When compared to Ofcom data on broadband speeds, the researchers found a correlation between the two sets of data. This was further supported by the study revealing that areas that used iPlayer a lot, such as London, South Gloucestershire and Bristol, also had faster average broadband speeds.
Dr Nishanth Sastry, a senior lecturer at King’s College London and the lead researcher of the study, said in an interview with the BBC: “It is clear that high-speed broadband is a major factor in the use of bandwidth-intensive applications such as BBC iPlayer. With technological advancements, it is likely that more services essential to daily life will move online, yet there is a significant proportion of the population with poor broadband connections who won't be able to access such services."
The study has inadvertently raised concerns over rural broadband speeds and as a result, questions why there is an evident gap in high-speed broadband and reliable connections between rural and urban areas. Ian Watt, a telecommunications consultant with the analyst Ovum, said: “The need for ubiquitous high-speed broadband access, including the extent to which some rural areas where broadband speeds remain relatively small are being deprived of the full benefits of broadband."
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