Broadband in Rural Communities

RURAL ADVOCATE VISIT

DAY 2- BANDWIDTH LEAD RURAL REGENERATION

Impact of Cybermoor

The business case for rural broadband

e-health - Alston Hospital

Coffee

Lessons from Cybermoor

National Context

EVALUATING CYBERMOOR

Action Research

Academic partners

Students

Consultants

Project reporting

Performance monitoring

IMPACT

Community impact

Economic impact

Education impact

ECONOMIC

25% use PCs to work from home – 7.4% national average

26 jobs created

Economic value to Alston is over £300K

SMEs supported with e-commerce, website design and general advice

EDUCATION

Two thirds of adult population improve their ICT use

SUMMARY OF IMPACTS

New jobs created

Inward investment as businesses move in

Basic ICT skills embedded in the community

Better performance by schools

Better use of community resources

THE SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGE

Lowest wages in the UK

High cost of delivering broadband

“Middle mile” bandwidth costs

£10 /Mb / month in Manchester

£266 /Mb / month in Alston

Low propensity to take up technology

ENGAGING THE COMMUNITY

PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING

FEEDBACK

DECISION MAKING

Members of the community were asked to choose and prioritise 5 out of a total of 18 identified schemes.

SUMMARY

Bandwidth lead regeneration delivers benefits across the community

Innovative use of technology

Delivers better public services to people

Economic impacts –money stays local

BUT

Barriers to further development can only be supported by government