No Fast Internet Countryside

In the countryside and in outlying areas, some 500,000 people have no or limited access to Internet. A malfunctioning connection brings 60,000 companies into trouble. Concerns about the poor internet connection are increasing, reports Nieuwsuur on Thursday. Dirk Strijker, Professor of Rural Development at the University of Groningen, raised the alarm already in 2011. He fears that residents and businesses will withdraw from the outer regions. “If the situation does not improve, further depopulation will occur and less economic activity,” he says in Nieuwsuur. Fast Internet is important to farmers. They use milking robots, which increase productivity, but a good connection is required. And that is, in many cases, not available because it is not profitable for providers to make a cable or glass fiber connection. Moreover, patients are considered more and more to order medications via the internet. In rural areas that is often not possible. Strijker estimates that it would cost 200 million euro to provide fast Internet in the rural areas.