Rural broadband needs to change

Laura Morris is a copywriter from Morris & Smith. She gained a bit of attention for her open letter to Fonterra which did the rounds on Facebook a while back.

Laura caught up with The Country Early Edition's Dom George to talk about poor internet connections and how it affects the rural community.

Morris recounts one of her own horror stories of how a shoddy internet connection has completely hampered her small business.

It also limits rural school children who have no access to internet technology like their urban counterparts.

Rural people are told that there are options to get around the problem but these solutions are often not practical.

Going to a bank or a café and using their free hotspots is a poor substitute when you're paying top dollar for broadband at home.

Morris is appalled by the price difference for rural broadband. Urban dwellers pay far less and have much stronger connections.

Something needs to change and soon.

Perhaps the most worrying aspect of the whole situation is that bad phone and internet connections are putting rural people's lives at risk.

Have a listen to the full interview in the Soundcloud embed below: