Survey shows digital disadvantage for rural Welsh businesses

Rural communities in Wales are still struggling with poor broadband speeds compared with their urban counterparts, a new survey on digital connectivity shows.

The responses from more than 600 people reveal the disparity between urban and rural areas when it comes to access and stability of broadband and mobile phone reception.

See also: Is this Britain’s most expensive broadband?

The survey, run by the National Federation of Women’s Institutes in Wales, the CLA, Farmers’ Union of Wales, NFU Cymru and Wales Young Farmers’ Club, showed that more than 50% of respondents from a rural area felt that the internet they had access to was not fast and reliable.

Less than 50% of those who lived in rural areas said they had standard broadband, only 36% had superfast broadband, and 66% said that they or their household had been impacted by poor broadband.

In comparison, 18% of their urban counterparts said they had access to standard broadband and 67% had superfast broadband.

One respondent said: “Broadband drops out regularly and it is regular for outages to last for many hours or days. It is unreliable for online video meetings and at its best we get 11-12MB. This does not support three people working online, but often it is much less and we cannot rely on it.

While 80% of participants used their mobile phone to access the internet, just 68% of those with a smartphone had access to a 4G or 5G mobile network.

Describing the mobile signal in their house, 57% of those from a rural area stated that their signal was unreliable, and 49% of those from a rural area said that their signal was unreliable outdoors.

The survey was carried out between 25 February and 31 March 2021. In total, 611 responses were received.

Most respondents lived in a rural local authority with the greatest number of responses from people living in Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Powys, Pembrokeshire and Monmouthshire.

Cause for concern

The rural groups who organised the survey said the results were a “real cause for concern” and urged the government to fix the digital divide between rural and urban areas.

The groups said in a joint statement: “Poor digital connectivity evidently impacts directly on our rural communities. It is essential that the next Welsh government further invests in rural infrastructure to enable rural families, farm businesses and others to capitalise on digital connectivity opportunities and not be left behind.”

The groups have sent the survey results to the Welsh government and requested a meeting on the issue with ministers.