I was strangely pleased to note this morning that my home town of Cardiff, specifically the constituencies of Cardiff Central and Cardiff North, has the highest percentage of broadband take-up in the England and Wales.
The analysis carried out by Point Topic aimed to discover the realities of the digital divide in England and Wales. The results show that although Wales’ two largest urban areas, Cardiff and Swansea, have the greatest take up, the rural constituencies of Wales, such as Meirionnydd Nant Conwy, have the least.
None too startlingly, the report concludes that there are two forms of divide: geographic and socio-economic. Stating: “As geographical availability improves, concerns about the socio-economic divide are starting to increase. Broadband lines and Internet access are much more likely to be found in more prosperous homes. Usage falls off sharply in older and less well-educated families - less than 10% of households headed by people over 75 have Internet access compared with well over 50% for the country as a whole. Low take-up by some groups prevents society from taking full advantage of the benefits of the Internet. Children in poor families, for example, will be even more disadvantaged in their education without proper access to the Internet.”
For more indepth reporting on broadband in the UK regions visit the New Statesman’s dedicated website on the topic.