While BT has been very good in returning funds that they were paid to roll out faster broadband to rural areas due to the ROI being better than initially anticipated, should there really be a debate as to whether to spend those returned funds on a further roll out to rural areas?

The answer in short is NO, there is no debate.  In today's age, faster broadband is a necessity.  When you look at the global ratings and see that South Korea has an average connectivity speed of 26.7Mb, you start to wonder why the UK is so far behind.

It is a simple fact that the majority of applications that we use today rely on an internet connection, whether that be for TV packages for our homes, cloud services for working or online services that are planning to go fully digital in the coming years, such as online tax returns.  We simply cannot function in modern society without a fast internet connection.

I have a home broadband connection that receives approximately 100MB speeds, which is fantastic.  I am in the process of installing a broadband connection for a client's house, less than 5 miles away, that will struggle to receive 1MB at best.  The facts speak for themselves, a wider spread availability of faster broadband connectivity is required.