Socio-economic NotSpots:

Updated: Monday, June 5, 2006

A New Digital Divide

Richard Hull, Chair, Calder Connect Co-operative (3-C) Ltd

Over half a million people in Yorkshire and Humberside are denied access to broadband purely through poverty.  This startling conclusion comes from analyses conducted by 3-C Ltd of recent OFCOM data.  It shows that, despite a clear government drive for ‘digital inclusion’ and an increasing reliance on online access to government and social services, online access for the those who most need it is increasingly difficult.

The OFCOM data shows that Yorkshire & Humberside has the highest proportion in the UK of people on lower incomes with no telephone landline. Instead they rely on mobile phones for telephony, and usually pay-as-you-go mobiles rather than monthly contracts.  This means they will not be able to get ordinary broadband (ADSL) through their telephone line, unlike nearly everyone else on broadband.  3-C Ltd, a community broadband co-operative in the Calder Valley, is actively working to redress this new digital divide by providing low-cost wireless broadband.

The OFCOM data, published a month ago, shows that 22% of people in the socio-economic groups C2, D & E in Yorkshire & Humberside do not have a telephone landline. This compares with a UK average of only 8% without a landline. For the better-off population, in groups A, B & C1, the UK average is only 4% without a landline, whilst the UK average for groups C2, D & E is 15%. Socio-economic groups C2, D & E comprise about half the population of Yorkshire and Humberside, which is currently 5 million.

The 3-C analysis also shows that the less wealthy of Yorkshire & Humberside are the least likely in England to have active broadband connections. 19% of people in groups C2, D & E have active broadband connections, compared with 26% in the North East and 27% in the North West. Only Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland have lower levels of broadband connection amongst people in groups C2, D & E. In the East of England, by comparison, 51% of people in groups A, B & C1 have active broadband connections.

Summary

• Access to broadband is limited by socio-economic status as well as by geography.
• 22% of people in socio-economic groups C2, D & E in Yorkshire and Humberside do not have a landline telephone, the highest ratio in the UK.
• Therefore nearly a quarter of C2DE in Yorkshire and Humberside are limited to internet cafes and similar venues for their broadband access.
• Ownership of active broadband connections amongst C2DE in Yorkshire and Humberside, at 19%, is the lowest of the English regions, but higher than Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland.
• This compares with over 50% of people in groups A, B and C1 in the East of England with active broadband connections.

There has recently been much attention to broadband ‘notspots’ – areas which still have limited or no access to ADSL wired broadband of at least 512kbps downstream and 256kbps upstream (Access to Broadband Campaign, Notspot Survey, forthcoming). It is clear that many rural areas still have limited or zero ADSL of reasonable quality.

However, there has been little if any attention to socio-economic notspots. These can be defined as severe limits to broadband access determined not by geographical location but by socio-economic status. To take a stark example – a homeless person has, by definition, no rented telephone landline. Their access to broadband is thus limited to, for example, internet cafes or drop-in centres with broadband terminals.

On this basis we can immediately see that ‘travellers’ – both traditional Romany and New Age – have also by definition very limited access. In the Calder Valley there is an additional group, those who live on boats on canals. 3-C have recently enabled several boat-dwellers through wireless broadband connections. However, I wish to focus on a far more substantial portion of the population, those on low incomes.

The recent OFCOM Report Communications Markets: Nations and Regions (OFCOM, March 2006, ) includes useful data on the take up of a variety of communications technologies, including telephone landlines and mobile phones.

Nationally, 8% of the population rely upon mobile phones for their telephony – they have no landline. But there are stark differences between socio-economic groups and regions: nationally, 15% of people in groups C2, D & E have no landline, compared with only 4% of those in groups A, B & C1; people in C2DE are more likely to have pay-as-you-go contracts than monthly rentals; regionally, 16% of people in Yorkshire and Humberside (Y&H) have no landline compared with only 3% in the South West. Y&H in fact has the lowest percentage landline ownership across the whole of the UK including Wales, N. Ireland and Scotland.

Moreover, by both region and group, we see that 22% of C2DEs in Y&H have no landline, relying solely upon mobile phones. C2DE landline non-ownership in other regions is 20% in North East, 19% in Scotland, 18% in N. Ireland, 17% in East Midlands, on up to only 4% in the South West.

It is difficult to easily assess the reasons for Y&H to have such low landline ownership, and it does not correspond well with similar data on ownership of internet access, broadband access or PCs.  In the North East, Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland, ownership of both internet access and PCs is lower than in Y&H. Amongst C2DE, the North East, Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland still lag Y&H in PC ownership, and there is a similar story for internet access with the exception of the North East, where 37% of C2DE have internet ownership compared with only 34% in Y&H. Broadband access was not measured absolutely, only as a percentage of internet ownership, and not categorised by socio-economic or age profile. Interestingly, however, given the comparisons above between Y&H and the North East, whilst 56% of internet ownership is broadband in Y&H, it is 70% in the North East.

Finally, combining data for C2DE internet ownership and regional take-up of broadband, to yield the assumed figure for C2DE ownership of broadband access, gives, in order:

This compares with, at the other extreme, 50.8% of ABC1s in the East of England who own broadband access.

Richard Hull
Chair,
Calder Connect Co-operative (3-C) Ltd