Several outlets report on the fact that fibre is ‘the key to productivity’ for rural businesses, yet one in 10 rural English and Welsh properties don't have a superfast broadband option yet

The website Technative reports that achieving seamless connectivity has been a ‘longstanding bottleneck for productivity’ for businesses operating in rural areas throughout the UK. Without a robust network infrastructure in place, companies in remote areas risk not being able to keep up with the pace of business.

The overall UK superfast coverage figures record that 96.33 percent of the UK can access a 30 Mbps or faster broadband option and in England it is marginally higher at 96.86 percent, but lower in Wales at 95.1 percent.

What these overall figures hide is the variation that occurs and the biggest level of variation is down to whether properties are in a rural or urban postcode, so in rural England and Wales superfast coverage is down at 89.5 percent versus 98.6 percent in urban areas.

This is notably worse in remote areas where one in five do not have access to a superfast option.

Full articles:

Technative - Fibre is the key to productivity for rural businesses

thinkbroadband - 1 in 10 rural English and Welsh properties don't have superfast broadband option