Businesswoman Sally Robinson – who sells super-size bras online – says the Government has boobed by neglecting rural broadband internet connections. Sally launched her business AmpleBosom.com nine years ago in a remote part of north Yorkshire. She believes the Government’s failure to keep abreast of broadband technology has held back thousands of country businesses including hers. She is backing the Country Land & Business Association’s campaign for the Government to invest in proper rural broadband connections – and put pressure on British Telecom to stop under wiring the countryside. CLA member Sally said: “We were on a dial-up connection for years and it was hopeless for e-commerce. We have to pay through the nose for satellite broadband – and it is still slower than much cheaper broadband services in the city.” Sally says it has proved impossible to get BT to wire her up in with fibre optic cable in her base at Old Byland, north Yorkshire. “It’s a disgrace,” said Sally. “Government departments have the affront to insist you fill out forms online but do nothing to boost the size of broadband provision. I have a staff of 10 and, every year, sell tens of thousands of bras – stocking up to 58 chest measurement and everything up to L cup size – but the business could have been far bigger by now if we’d been properly supported.” CLA Deputy President William Worsley said even some mountainous areas in the Alps and remote parts of Spain have faster broadband than rural Britain. He said: “The internet is hugely important for the countryside. The Government needs to inflate its efforts on providing fast broadband for rural areas. Otherwise, businesses will simply go bust.”
The CLA believes the answer is a public/private sector partnership with the aim of achieving total fibre optic availability within 15 years. This would stop UK rural businesses falling flat compared with competitors in countries such as Japan, Sweden and the Netherlands, already well ahead of the UK in broadband performance. A report by the Government’s Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) - recommending no government investment in next generation internet access network – has been branded “seriously blinkered” by the CLA.

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22 October 2008
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