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Q&A: Why Apprentice star is joining rural broadband fight
Posted on 10 Aug 2009 at 11:35
Sir Alan Sugar said he was "sick of looking at her" after she opened her mouth once too often in the 2008 series of the BBC's Apprentice. But show runner-up Claire Young has no intention of keeping quiet about the lack of broadband access in rural areas, which she says is damaging her livelihood and that of thousands of businesses across Britain.
Here she explains why she's joined the Country Land and Business Association's (CLA) campaign for effective rural internet broadband, and the difficulties she's faced finding a connection in rural areas.
Q How did you get involved in the rural broadband campaign?
A When I finished The Apprentice last year I set up my own wedding business, Elegant Venues. In lots of the areas I work I can't get broadband.
When I met the people from CLA, they said this is the single biggest campaign for years ahead. There's a huge amount of the population that can't get [high-speed] broadband.
Q How does a lack of decent broadband affect your day-to-day business?
A Companies want to be able to connect 24/7. If I don't reply to a customer's email, they could take their business elsewhere. Ironically, the Government has a lot of [business] forms to fill out online as well.
Q Is mobile broadband not a better option in rural areas?
It's ridiculous: you have to drive five miles to a field and some sheep just to send an email
A I have a dongle, which I do use as an emergency measure, but it's incredibly slow. Sometimes I want to throw the laptop out of the window. It's ridiculous: you have to drive five miles to a field and some sheep just to send an email.
Q Are you reassured about the Government's pledge to bring universal 2Mbits/sec broadband by 2012?
A Is it going to happen? It seems to be doing a lot of talking, but not a lot of doing. We want people to go to the CLA website where we're forming a petition to go to the Government and say 'look, this is a really big problem'.
Q What would you like to see the Government do?
A The Government could issue a loan guarantee scheme - it could give the money to BT to lay the [fibre] network and it can pay it back over a period of years.
Author: Barry Collins
We need a champion for broadband in the countryside
I have just come off the phone from a guy called Richard Dix, who is planning to launch an internet provider service for the rural countryside. He is using satellite, adsl and long range wireless links. I believe he is a member of the CLA himself as he was previously a farmer himself and has lived and worked in the counreyside all his life.
His website for the project is http://www.realruralbroadband.com and his company site is http://www.positivecomputing.co.uk.
I think the idea he has is a fine one and wish him all the luck he needs in setting this up.
Perhaps then we in the countryside of rural britain can get the connections we deserve.
Paul Dovey
By RealRuralBroadband on 18 Aug 2009 
Dial Up Internet Is Fine For E-Mails
If all Claire Young wants to do is send an e-mail, there is no need “to drive 5 miles to a field and some sheep just to send an email”. Presumably even in rural areas they have telephone service and therefore dial-up Internet is available. For sending and receiving e-mails dial-up Internet is fine. You only need broadband to browse graphics heavy websites or to download large audio or video files.
By digitallogic on 22 Aug 2009
If you send one email every few days, dial up is barelky acceptable
@digitallogic partially right only if you send a single email in your spare time. But when running a business on dial up speeds it becomes time consuming and impossible waste of time and therefore money. High speed equals business speed advantage. Low speed = out of business very soon. Having used one of the few actual (at the time) true 8mb down 2mb up Bt broadband (great people who helped replace the whole cable from the premises to the exchange) and then moving to africa where Telkom the local Telecoms incumbent claims it is supplying broadband adsl which is in fact only 218kbs max up and maybe 1024 down if you are lucky. It takes up to two mins to send a single email. It used to take (on the BT line in London) less than ten seconds. This time difference leaves me at a huge disadvantage with my competitors in other parts of the world. I lose huge amounts every day because Of these limits. I understand what she is going through as I deal with it every day. time = money. for every email I lose 1m50seconds and I send between twen to fifty emails daily. what used to take me no more than two hours including coffee/tea now takes a while day.
By webslave_uk on 18 Sep 2009
please forgive the typo's
sorry about the typos. dyslexics of the world UNTIE
By webslave_uk on 18 Sep 2009
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