The UK has officially become a nation of digital divides, according to a study of the UK’s communications regulator Ofcom.
The research, carried out last year, provides the first insight of the regional variations in the availability, usage and take up of fixed and mobile phone services, digital TV and radio and Internet access.
The study reveals that internet take-up and use in now higher in rural areas of the UK than in big cities.

But the research also points out that rural users are more likely to be stuck with slow dial-up connections rather than the fast broadband enjoyed in urban areas, particularly in London.

Meanwhile, people in Northern Ireland send the most texts - on average 37.5 texts per week- but scores the lowest take-up for digital TV. The assumption is that because average incomes are the lowest in the part of the UK, households would be less willing to spend money on digital television. The province also has the lowest number of mobile phone users with 3 adults in 10 not owning a phone compared with a UK average of one in five.

Ofcom’s chief operating officer, Ed Richards, said: “Clearly this split is a new dimension to the digital divide. It manifests itself now in things like digital terrestrial TV availability and increasingly in the availability of competitive infrastructure even for current levels of broadband access. It will manifest itself, in due course, in the extent to which very high speed broadband access is available to all parts of the UK. It is a very important new dimension to the communications landscape.”