Rural Britain desperate for broadband

LONDON, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Prince Charles says isolated British communities face an enormous handicap because they lack access to a fast broadband Internet connection.

As many as 2 million people lack broadband, which threatens to turn Britain's countryside into ghost towns populated by little more than second-home owners, the heir apparent to the British throne wrote in an essay published Saturday in The Daily Telegraph.

An estimated 14 farmers quit the business every week, many of them trapped in "broadband deserts" where they are unable to access markets and promote their goods through the Internet, said Charles, who runs The Prince's Rural Action Plan, which aides business in the countryside.

"There is not a business in the country, with ambition to succeed, that does not have an email address or a Web site," he said.

The British government has promised speeds of 2 megabits per second for everyone in Britain by 2012, but critics say that target, even if met, falls short of the speed needed for modern Internet service, the Telegraph reported.