190,000 UK properties can't access broadband speeds to meet modern needs

Almost 200,000 “forgotten homes” across the UK are being left behind in the government’s digital revolution, unable to get broadband speeds deemed the minimum to meet a modern family’s needs. The telecoms regulator Ofcom has said that 190,000 mostly rural homes and offices, about 0.6% of all properties, still cannot access “decent” broadband speeds of at least 10Mbps. This is the minimum speed deemed necessary to cope with modern needs, from downloading a film on Sky to streaming music or TV services from Netflix to Disney+. Ofcom’s annual Connected Nations report estimates that there are 119,000 premises in England that cannot get access to decent broadband. The figure is 34,000 in Scotland, 18,000 in Wales and 19,000 in Northern Ireland.