Over nine million people in the UK live in rural areas. Yet many still lack access to reliable digital infrastructure.
As of April 2025, only 52% of rural premises have access to gigabit-capable broadband, compared to 87% in urban areas, according to a report by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.
And according to another study, only half of all premises in rural areas can access 4G from major mobile network operators.
This doesn’t just impact residents. The same study found that small and medium businesses in rural areas are five times more likely than those in urban areas to lack access to a reliable broadband connection.
Before we can fix this problem, however, we first need to understand why better rural connectivity is something we should all care about, whether we live in a rural area or not.
Why improving rural connectivity matters
It’s easy to think of connectivity through the lens of browsing the internet and streaming your favourite Netflix shows.
But with the modern world so geared around doing things online, a lack of good connectivity can leave you cut off from many essential resources. It can limit access to everything from education to healthcare, jobs, social interaction and more.
51% of rural residents say poor connectivity negatively impacts their ability to work from home, according to research by Virgin Media O2, while 30% can’t work remotely at all due to connectivity issues.
As a result, poor connectivity poses a significant risk of depopulation and ‘brain drain’ from rural areas, with over a third of rural residents (and up to 66% of young people) considering moving to urban areas for better connectivity, career prospects and access to services.
Perhaps the most concerning aspect, however, is the social impact of poor connectivity, particularly on more vulnerable groups, like the elderly.
This doesn’t just impact them on a practical level, like being able to access increasingly digital services, from healthcare to council tax and more. It can also leave them socially isolated and unable to keep in touch with loved ones.
As The Country Land and Business Association (CLA)’s Tom Wedd put it in a blog last year on the challenges of isolation in rural areas, unreliable digital connectivity, among other things, can “create significant challenges, impacting everything from mental health to access to education, employment and healthcare.”
In fact, as of 2024, over three million people in England alone reported feeling lonely ‘often’ or ‘always’, according to government reports.
Improved connectivity has a critical role to play in reducing those numbers.
How rural people and organisations could benefit
We’ve talked about the overall impact of poor connectivity in rural areas. Now let’s look at some of the specific improvements better connectivity could bring to different industries and groups.
- Business. The ability to tap into better remote and hybrid working practices and digital services gives rural businesses more opportunities without moving into urban areas, while more reliable infrastructure is likely to encourage more investment and startups moving to rural areas.
- Education. Rural students will be better able to access things like digital learning platforms and virtual classrooms, while teachers can access the online support they need more easily. All of which can help close the educational divide between rural and urban areas.
- Healthcare. Telemedicine and remote consultations or patient monitoring, enabled by faster, more reliable connectivity, could help rural patients who may struggle to get to a hospital, increasing access to quality, timely healthcare for those living in remote areas.
- Community. Better connectivity and digital services can help rural residents connect with others in their local area and beyond to reduce isolation and loneliness, while giving them easier access to council services, job opportunities, support groups and more.
- Farming. With the right connectivity, modern agriculture techniques like IoT devices, GPS-guided equipment and data analytics become much more readily available, while real-time data monitoring in areas like weather and soil can help with planning and reduce risks.
These are just a few examples. But really the possibilities are endless when it comes to improving the lives and work of people in rural areas all over the country.
A boost for the whole UK
The case for improving rural connectivity is undeniable. But the commercial realities faced by major network operators make it hard to invest in the way that’s needed.
We can’t just wait for the market, in its current form, to deliver. While initiatives like the Shared Rural Network are helping, they can’t fix everything on their own.
Instead we need to look at new and innovative business models and ways to deliver connectivity that don’t rely on traditional ways of doing things.
One way we’re doing that is through our 5G railway project: a stretch of rail between Bicester and Bletchley on which we’re testing out how to get reliable internet onto trains.
This might not immediately seem like a possible cure for the problems we’ve talked about in this blog. But it isn’t just the passengers on the train who’ll enjoy the improved connectivity – we’re also looking at ways to make sure people alongside the track, like residents and farmers, can benefit too.
Projects like this are essential for finding new, uncharted ways of bringing better connectivity to parts of the country that haven’t had it before.
This isn’t just about making the countryside better connected. It’s about making the UK an overall better place to live, do business and invest in.
For everyone.