Rural broadband households overtake urban for the first time

Video briefing

James Thickett introduces The Communications Market 2008: Nations and Regions report

Download the CMR N&R 2008 briefing pack (PDF, 338Kb)

Rural areas of the UK are better connected to broadband than their urban neighbours, a new Ofcom report published today reveals.

The report shows that, for the first time, there is a greater proportion of households with broadband in the rural parts of the UK’s nations and regions than there are in urban areas. Across the UK as a whole, 59 per cent of households in rural areas now have broadband compared to 57 per cent of urban areas.

When broadband was first introduced in the UK in 2000, households in urban areas were the first to take the service, leading to concerns that a digital divide was emerging between country and built-up areas. But the rapid rollout of broadband services across the country has meant that most parts of the UK now have access to this service and today’s report marks the end of the so-called divide.

In England, 60 per cent of rural households have broadband, 2 per cent higher than in urban areas at 58 per cent. The gap is the same in Northern Ireland with 54 per cent of broadband households in rural areas and 52 per cent in urban areas. In Scotland, 59 per cent of rural households have broadband compared to 52 per cent of urban households. The biggest difference is in Wales where 51 per cent of rural households have broadband, in contrast to 43 per cent of urban households.

As well as measuring broadband households, Ofcom’s third Communications Market Report: Nations and Regions, measures take-up and use of television, radio and telecoms services in the English regions, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. This year’s report looks in detail at the main cities in each of the nations and regions and offers a comparison of the South West, North East and North West of England.

Take-up of communications services across the UK

Broadband

Overall, broadband is in 57 per cent of households across the UK - up from 45 per cent in twelve months - and take-up has also increased steadily in the nations and regions.

England saw the highest growth, up 13 per cent to 58 per cent. The East of England has the highest proportion of broadband households (68 per cent) with the East Midlands at the lower end of the scale with only 37 per cent of households having broadband. In Scotland as a whole, 53 per cent of households have broadband up 11 per cent in twelve months. In Northern Ireland 52 per cent of households have broadband, an increase of 10 per cent. The lowest growth of broadband households is in Wales, up 3 per cent to 45 per cent.

Television

Digital television is in 85 per cent of households across the UK - up 10 percentage points since 2006. Wales saw the smallest growth up two per cent to 84 per cent; Scotland was up nine per cent with 85 per cent of households having digital TV. Northern Ireland has the lowest take-up at 79 per cent, but it increased by the highest rate of all the nations, up 10 per cent since last year.

Across the UK’s cities, Sunderland has the highest number of digital TV households – more than any other nation or region of the UK, with 96 percent taking the service, followed by Cardiff and Glasgow at 95 per cent. London saw the highest growth up 20 percentage points in 12 months to 89 per cent. Households in Londonderry/Derry have the lowest levels of digital TV homes at 64 per cent, followed by Birmingham at 70 per cent.

In 2007, the four main broadcasters increased their proportion of television programmes made outside of London. However, ITV failed to reach the required quota of money spent on programmes made outside of London (44 per cent instead of 50 per cent). Ofcom is now reviewing the issue and considering what action would be appropriate.

Digital radio

More than one in five people in England (22 per cent) now own a DAB digital radio set, up 3 per cent in twelve months. Wales remained static at 14 per cent while Northern Ireland saw a two per cent increase to reach 13 per cent. The highest growth was in Scotland, up seven per cent to 21 per cent.

Mobile-only homes on the rise

At 12 per cent, more households than ever before now rely solely on a mobile phone. Wales saw the highest growth of mobile-only homes up nine per cent with around a fifth of all homes (19 per cent) mobile-only. Some 12 per cent of homes in England are mobile-only an increase of three per cent. In Northern Ireland, around one in ten households (11 per cent) are mobile-only, up 1 per cent in 12 months. Scotland was the only nation where the number of mobile-only homes fell slightly from 14 per cent to 12 per cent. In the UK’s cities, Greater Manchester has the highest levels of mobile-only homes at 28 per cent, followed by Londonderry/Derry at 27 per cent.

Ofcom undertakes this research to enable it to develop effective regulation to benefit citizens and consumers based on the most authoritative evidence available.

Key finding for England

The English spend more time on the internet than in any of the UK’s other nations, going online for an average of 12.4 hours on the internet, and 77 per cent of their time online is used to send email and instant messages, and visit chat rooms.
The internet is also being used increasingly for other media activities. In England, 30 per cent of people watch TV or video content online. In London the figure rises to 40 per cent. Manchester is lowest with 16 percent followed by Liverpool at 22 per cent. More than one in ten (13 per cent) adults in England also uses the internet to make a voice call (VoIP). Use is highest in London at 20 per cent and lowest in Manchester and Liverpool at four per cent.
People in England are using their mobile in different ways other than to make calls. Some 21 per cent use it to access the internet, rising to 32 per cent in London. Birmingham is highest with a third of people using mobile internet. People living in rural parts of Devon and Cornwall are least likely to go online via their mobile at just 7 per cent.
Watching television or video on a mobile phone is also becoming more popular with 4 per cent of adults in England now viewing content this way. The figure rises to 10 per cent of adults in Liverpool and 15 per cent in Birmingham.

Key findings for Northern Ireland

Some 71 per cent of both digital and analogue television viewers in Northern Ireland can receive channels which are broadcast from the Republic of Ireland.
Early evening news bulletins are more popular with viewers in Northern Ireland than anywhere else in the UK, with 39 per cent of viewers watching UTV’s news programme - the highest viewing figure for any nations news programme.
Mobile users in Northern Ireland are more likely to access the internet through their phone with 23 per cent doing so, compared to the UK figure of 20 per cent. They are also nearly twice as likely than any other nation to watch video content this way at 7 per cent compared to 4 per cent average in the UK.
More people in Northern Ireland listen to the radio or MP3 downloads on their mobile than any other nations or region. On average, one in five people in Northern Ireland listens to the radio or MP3 downloads via their mobile with 22 per cent doing so in the East and only 14 per cent in the West.

Key findings for Scotland

The Scots watch more television than any other nation at 4.0 hours per day, higher than the UK average of 3.4 hours. However, radio listening in Scotland is amongst the lowest at 22.9 hours per week compared to the UK average of 23.5 hours per week
People in Scotland are more likely to do several media activities at the same time – also known as “media stacking”. Two-thirds of Scots spend time talking on their mobile while using the internet. This is almost double the number of people in Wales who media stack these activities (38 per cent), and higher than the average in England at 48 per cent and Northern Ireland at 49 per cent.
Mobile telephone owners in Scotland are using them less to access the internet than the other nations at 15 per cent compared to the UK average of 20 per cent.
Social networking is less popular in Scotland and Wales with fewer adults using these sites than the UK overall – 15 per cent in each nation compared to 21 per cent in England and 22 per cent in Northern Ireland.

Key findings for Wales

The Welsh watch more satellite television than the rest of the UK with 79 per cent taking a satellite service, fourteen percentage points higher than the UK average of 65 per cent.
People in Wales listen to more radio than any other part of the UK. The Welsh listen to 24.4 hours of radio per week compared to a UK average of 23.5 hours.
There are more mobile-only households in Wales than in any other part of the UK, with 19 per cent of households compared to the UK figure of 12 per cent.
There are over 16,000 pages of Wikipedia in Welsh – the highest number of pages in an indigenous language after English, and twice as many as were written in Irish Gaelic.
Fewer people in Wales use the internet to watch TV or video (24 per cent) compared to the UK average of 30 per cent.

Ed Richards , Ofcom Chief Executive said: “Our report highlights a closing of the geographic digital divide in the UK. Rural households are today as well connected to broadband, as their urban neighbours.”

He added: “The report also shows that across the UK, take-up of all communications services continues to grow with more people watching digital television and listening to DAB digital radio and consumers are benefiting from convergence and using new ways to access traditional services.”

The full report can be found here: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/cmrnr08/

Ends.

Notes for Editors

1. Today’s report is part of a wide-ranging Ofcom research programme. Earlier this month we published Ofcom's Adult and Children Media Literacy Audits which track the media literacy of the UK population to better understand the markets Ofcom regulates and the Technology Research and Development report, Tomorrow’s Wireless World, which looked at new and innovative technologies that could improve healthcare and transport provision.

2. Ofcom is the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, with responsibilities across television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communications services.