Broadband already plays a vital role in the everyday lives of many people and is now being termed as the “fourth utility” next to gas, electricity and water.  Property prices now reflect broadband availability and communities without broadband risk failing to attract young families and professionals.

Many of the latest television sets now come enabled with internet access as standard. To use the services they offer, such as ‘Internet Browsing’, ‘films on demand’ and ‘catch-up TV’, high speed broadband is required.  These alone will drive the need for quality high speed rural broadband services but these are just the tip of the iceberg.  Applications such as video conference calls are already common place on Skype, Google+ and Facebook and it is clear that healthcare, education, housing and social networking, to name but a few will mean broadband is no longer a “nice to have” but an essential part of everyday living and is fast becoming an essential utility.  If a community does not have a quality broadband service or it is slow, then it quickly affects community wellbeing in a manner that is much broader than simply not being able to access TV channels.  Our children are accustomed to having access to high speed broadband services within their school and home-work; self-learning and research are often set with the expectation that high speed broadband is available at home.