Broadband campaigner Glyn Pitchford has praised Prince Charles for his intervention in the debate over the technology.

The Prince has warned of “broadband deserts” particularly in rural areas, and that has chimed with fears for the West Midlands, where Mr Pitchford has previously highlighted a potential “patchwork quilt” effect.

There has been widespread concern at the Government’s alleged lack of urgency on the issue – its recent Digital Britain report offered a policy commitment to speeds of just two megabits per second, far less than the 100 mbps being targeted by the likes of South Korea and others.

The fear is that the region could be left behind, with large parts of Shropshire and Herefordshire hardest hit.

The Prince cautioned that isolated communities, which already struggle to make a living, face an “immense handicap” without the ability to promote their goods or download information through websites and email.

Schools, doctors’ surgeries and other essential services were also suffering after being left in the internet “slow lane”, he claimed.

He insisted: “Access to the internet is increasingly being considered a necessity. There is not a business in the country, with ambition to succeed, that does not have an email address or a website.

“Yet still too many rural households are currently unable to access the internet at satisfactory speeds. The handicap this places on those businesses, schools, doctors’ surgeries and local authorities, which inhabit so-called ‘broadband deserts’, is immense.

And, even more worryingly, many of those who are being left behind in the internet’s ‘slow lane’ are the very same people who look after the countryside on our behalf – Britain’s livestock farmers – and they are struggling as never before.”

The Prince’s words will strike a chord with the two million people who are unable to get a fast broadband connection and the 166,000 who cannot get broadband at all.

Countryside groups are becoming increasingly concerned that the 2 mbps target, even if it is met, falls well short of the speeds needed for modern life, such as downloading video content fast enough.

There are also concerns about whether operators will bother to roll out faster speeds to rural areas where fewer people pay for the service.

Many of these concerns have been highlighted by Mr Pitchford, elected Business Voice WM business representative on the City Region board, who has been tasked with pushing impetus and interest in the project following BT’s recent announcement to speed plans for super-fast broadband.

More than 110,000 homes and businesses in the West Midlands will benefit.

He has talked of gaps across the region due to a lack of investment in infrastructure.

He stated today: “Prince Charles’ intervention is most welcome.

“We at BVWM and the City Region have been warning of the complacency in Government circles and the danger of being left behind.

“Other nations are speeding ahead of us.

“And the Prince is right about rural areas – our countryside and its people need all the help they can get.

“Now the Prince has spoken out let’s hope the Government starts listening. He has hit the nail on the head. We need to see action.”

But it couldn’t be just the Government – there had to be self-help.

And the City Region was doing just that with initiatives which, though set to benefit urban centres first, could be spun out into rural areas. They involved infrastructure initiatives between the public and private sectors in partnership.

Eight BT exchanges in the West Midlands – Fallings Park, Great Barr, Leamore, Northern (Soho, Birmingham), Nuneaton, Tettenhall, Walsall and Wednesbury – are among UK locations due to be upgraded next year.

It takes in an arc over the north Black Country which reaches down through Bloxwich and Walsall and touches the northern end of the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham.

It will see 1.5 million UK homes have access to super-fast broadband by early summer 2010. A million of those homes will be hooked up by March, which is a doubling of the original pace of deployment.

The plan is the first chapter in BT’s longer-term programme to make super-fast broadband available to 40 per cent of the UK – or some 10 million homes – by 2012.