The National Farmers Union has held talks over the issue of poor mobile coverage and broadband connectivity many people in rural areas receive.
Karen Bradley, MP for Staffordshire Moorlands held talks with the NFU on Friday (15 December).
NFU livestock board chairman Charles Sercombe was among the group of members meeting the Minister. He explained his experience of IED tagging and members’ issues with poor broadband and mobile connectivity to explain the challenges affecting the farming industry.
According to an NFU survey from 2016, 85% of farmers have an unreliable outdoor mobile phone signal, 82% of farmers have an unreliable indoor mobile phone signal and only 6% of farmers have access to superfast download speeds.
Ofcom’s Connected Nations 2017 Report released on Friday (15 December 2017) states that 1.1m premises still don’t have access to decent broadband.
This means that 17% of rural homes and businesses are unable to receive decent broadband and 82% can’t receive a 4G signal.
It is an improving picture for rural areas, but progress appears slow and the digital divide is still significant, holding back the countryside economically and socially.
The new figures show that 17% of premises in the UK’s rural areas cannot receive a download speed of at least 10Mbit/s compared to just 2% of urban premises.
Sail pace broadband
The NFU explains that 4G services are important for farmers who need to use data services, for example to help transmit data from livestock IED readers. Voice coverage is also essential for efficient and safe farm businesses.
It is calling on government to make the digital economy universal by ensuring the rollout of superfast broadband to all farmers and growers and their rural communities, alongside complete mobile phone coverage.
This will mean ensuring that there is necessary regulation in place and there is a competitive rural market.
The farming union states that it is essential to lay the foundations for 5G coverage for farming now; and that the full delivery of the government’s Agritech and Industrial Strategies depend upon it.
In the Autumn Budget, Chancellor Philip Hammond promised increased government spending on emerging technologies. It will invest more than £500m “in a range of initiatives from artificial intelligence, to 5G and full fibre broadband”.
The NFU submitted six key asks ahead of the budget announcement, which included a plea for the roll-out of superfast broadband and emerging technologies such as robotics.
The rollout is seen as a chance for farmers to utilise emerging digital technology, improve productivity and assist rural businesses to compete with their urban counterparts in an ever-increasing sense of uncertainty.
The NFU's Spotlight on Farm Broadband and Mobile Networks sets out the solutions to deliver this.
