Rural areas will lose out if BT Openreach fails to deliver its universal high-speed broadband plans across the country, farmers have warned.
The government has said it may abandon plans to implement its Universal Service Obligation (USO) that ensures everyone in Britain has a legal right to request minimum speeds of 10Mbps by 2020.
But president of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) Ross Murray said the plans should not be replaced by 'one company' delivering connections how it saw fit.
"We will fight any attempt to water down the hard won legal right to broadband for rural homes and businesses," he said.
"For too long, rural areas have been at the back of the queue when it comes to investment in infrastructure and that is why this legal principle is not something to compromise on.
"Accountability for delivering the rollout of broadband has been a closed shop discussion between the industry and the regulator for too long."
'Real barrier'
Poor connectivity is a longstanding issue in rural communities.
The lack of high quality broadband services in rural areas means that farmers, rural business owners and their families are being left behind.
But BT's boss Gavin Patterson said: "We already expect 95 per cent of homes and businesses to have access to superfast broadband speeds of 24Mbps or faster by the end of 2017. Our latest initiative aims to ensure that all UK premises can get faster broadband, even in the hardest to reach parts of the UK."
Culture Secretary Karen Bradley has said the government will look at both plans and make sure the consumer gets the 'best deal.'
Guy Smith, Vice-President of the body, commented: "More than ever farmers need to use digital technologies to help farm more efficiently and fully utilise emerging digital technology such as robotics and GPS.
"Yet no signal for mobile phone voice or text and a severe lack of broadband coverage is creating a real barrier for those farm businesses and putting them at a disadvantage."
