Dr. Helen Hambly Odame, a professor in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, spoke to CBC London about the ongoing issue of the “digital divide” that separates those who have access to high-speed broadband internet access and those who don’t.
Hambly noted in her interview that it’s not just people in rural or remote areas who have trouble accessing reliable internet; it can be those in suburban areas as well.
She said the country not only needs a better strategy for getting rural areas broadband service; it needs more awareness of just how bad the problem is.
“The big thing is for consumers to demand better service from the provider and leverage those calls to political representatives,” she said.
Hambly studies communication and information for agricultural innovation and community development and leads the Regional and Rural Broadband (R2B2) project, the country’s oldest and largest research program based on rural Internet.