Pandemic brought home digital divide

The experienced IT and telecoms executive says during the pandemic it became apparent that in Settrington, three miles east of Malton, the local village school didn't have a fast broadband connection, but the village five miles away did.

- ROB PARSONS

SIMON Blagden - who chairs the government agency in charge of rolling out lightning-fast broadband around the country - has a perfect example of the 'digital divide' as he describes the North Yorkshire village where he lives.

"At the time we were all working from home during the pandemic, it became evident that there were some households and businesses that had really good connectivity to broadband, and some others that quite frankly, had really poor connectivity," the chair of Building Digital UK (BDUK) tells a new episode of The Northern Agenda podcast.