I've written several times about the fact that there are vast areas of UK countryside where it is impossible to get any sort of always-on, broadband service.
This is a serious problem, not just for those people who want to get their bootleg songs and videos more quickly, but also for businesses based in rural areas and employees who would like to spend more time working from home.
In its report The State of the Countryside 2003, the Countryside Agency spells out the significant impact that the lack of broadband services is having on the UK's rural economy.
Two-thirds of rural businesses still use a dial-up modem or ISDN for internet connection, for example, a fact that clearly restricts the services that rural businesses are able to provide for their customers and employees.
BT has been expanding its ADSL coverage to more of its local telephone exchanges and recently announced the setting of targets for 500 further locations - but about 4,400 of BT's 5,600 exchanges are still not enabled for ADSL. Most of these are in rural areas, where the only broadband option, in many cases, is to use expensive satellite services.
However, things are not all black, as revealed at a recent conference organised by the Access to Broadband Campaign (ABC). There are now several hundred local campaigns trying to persuade local people to register an interest in ADSL services - to achieve the numbers necessary before BT will upgrade local exchanges.
Several have been successful and now have ADSL access. In many cases, however, BT has either not set announced target numbers or has made them unachievable.
Local people can take matters into their own hands, though, by getting together to finance the provision of a leased line and then distributing that capacity via short-range radio-based networks such as wireless LANs (WLANs).
I have been involved in one such scheme and great fun it is too. Several companies have started up in order to provide assistance to local groups, the leading light being Invisible Networks, which runs several systems, mainly in the Cambridge area.
Another good example of a community scheme is the ambitious EdenFaster project, which aims to provide broadband services in Cumbria.
Various radio technologies are now being used, almost always in the licence-exempt 2.4GHz waveband.
Systems based on 802.11b are the most popular but there are several difficulties with network management.
It is fair to say that there is not a perfect system available yet but, now that the Radiocommunications Agency is to open up the 5GHz band for this sort of application, new developments may start.
The DTI has just set up a unit under Nigel Heriz-Smith to deal with rural broadband. His department has the task of promoting rural broadband and may even be able to provide finance for community schemes through the Regional Development Agencies or through Defra. Heriz-Smith has a tough job but, potentially, a very rewarding one.
The amount of effort that is being put into rural broadband on all sides should ensure that services are rolled out more quickly than previously expected.
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