DIY fibre networking an option for rural residents

Web users based in rural communities have the option of facilitating their own access to high-speed fibre optic networks, according to an expert comparison site.

Chris Marling, editor at Broadband Genie, said that rural residents in the UK could follow the example of their counterparts in countries like Norway and the Netherlands, some of whom have dug trenches on their land to get faster access to fibre networks.

Fibre networks could enable broadband customers to use VoIP solutions more effectively and download content from the internet at a greater speed.

The editor said: "Farmers in countries such as Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden have dug their own trenches to ensure they can connect to a fibre network, which will probably be quicker and less painful than waiting for the government to dig them out of this particular hole."

Nearly 45 per cent of rural broadband users cannot yet access connection speeds of two megabits per second that the government plans to supply to every UK home by 2012.