It seems that there was a whole array of technologies that might be deployed in rural Hampshire, which could potentially minimise the digital divide in the area.

The leader at Hampshire County Council, Councillor Ken Thornber, said that services such as Wi-Fi, satellite as well as mobile broadband might be the key to getting more people using the internet.

According to him, rural residents could potentially be given a wide array of choice when it came to internet service providers (ISPs).

He was quoted as saying:

"Broadband allows people to work and run businesses from home and increases access to education, employment and leisure."

"We want to see an end to this digital divide whereby an urban housing estate gets super-fast broadband but a rural village just half a mile away gets little or no internet access."

Nevertheless, according to the Councillor, rural communities will need to demonstrate their interest in broadband by proving that they were ready to cough up payments for both monthly charges as well as one-off set up fees.

Hampshire County Council said that there were more than 112,000 people and 3,400 enterprises with dissatisfactory broadband services in the area.