The Digital Divide
The Digital Divide - High Speed Broadband in Wales
The Internet is not just for fun or for doing your homework. It is essential to keep many businesses running as they rely on it for communicating with other businesses.
Businesses relying on the internet
At the moment most people who have the Internet use Broadband. But there are many new developments being made to make the Internet much faster.
The latest development is fibre optic cables. This is a cable that transmits information as light waves. This means it is travelling at the speed of light. And that's incredibly fast…
Fibre Optics
In Wales many people say we are missing out on the latest technologies such as the fibre optic cable network. Many people think that North Wales and rural Wales is missing out more than South Wales.
The digital divide
Is there really a divide?
When it comes to superfast broadband there is a real North-South digital divide! BT, the company responsible for our cable network, is installing new fibre optic cable exchanges. Sadly, Wales will only see 5 out of approximately 100 exchanges and they are all in South Wales. These include telephone exchanges in Barry, Caerphilly, Penarth, Cardiff and Taffs Well.
New fibre optic exchanges in Wales
Many people in rural Wales have broadband. However, there are still areas that are too far away from a telephone exchange to have fixed line broadband; these are called 'notspots'. A broadband "notspot" is caused by being too far away from a telephone exchange.
Broadband Notspots
In Wales this is being overcome in two ways. Firstly, wherever possible, people in rural Wales are using mobile broadband and secondly, people use 3G services. The Welsh are the most ‘tech-savvy’ nation in the UK!
Why is Cardiff such a hotspot?
In South Wales around Cardiff businesses sector that rely on up-to-date ICT communications; Cardiff is the main finance and business services centre in Wales, and 33,000 people are employed in this sector. New international companies are located in the city. Cardiff has the UK's largest Film, TV & Multimedia sector outside London. The @Wales projects are attracting new multimedia businesses to Cardiff Bay and further developments are expected since the creation of new film sets and recording facilities to the North and West of the City. None of this is possible without fibre optic highspeed broadband that the Capital Region provides.
There is a digital divide between Wales and the rest of the UK and within Wales there is a digital divide between the Capital Region and the rest of Wales. How does that make you feel? How might it affect your future?
