It's amazing what can be done with the wonders of information technology today – and to think, within living memory the fastest way of sending complex messages was by carrier pigeon!

Well yes – let's think about that. Let's especially think about the smug past tense of the sentence.

Employing carrier pigeons to fly messages over long distances dates back to Roman times – people were still relying on them during the First World War – now we have broadband that effortlessly does the job in a trice.

That much is true. But last month a race between a pigeon and a computer highlighted the slow speed of broadband in some parts of the UK…

The pigeon won.

Why? Because the race was staged in a rural area – and broadband speeds in the countryside are often pitifully slow.

Ten pigeons carrying USB memory sticks were released from a Yorkshire farm at the same time as a five-minute video upload was started – an hour and a quarter later the pigeons had reached their destination in Skegness 90 miles away, while less than a quarter of the file had uploaded.

Campaigners staged the race to illustrate that broadband in rural areas lags far behind.

"The farm we were using has a connection of around 100 to 200kbps (kilobits per second)," said Tref Davies, the stunt's organiser. "The kids need to do school work and the farmer has to submit online forms – but the connection is not fit for purpose."

Mr Davies, who serves on the board of ISPA (Internet Service Providers' Association), believes the issue is one that industry and Government needs to address. A great many Westcountry folk would agree.

Here's an example of the uneven urban-versus-rural broadband playing field I came across last weekend. A national media company advertised a special offer allowing customers to download a Hollywood movie for free. I so started to download it – I also phoned my son in London and suggested he might like to do the same.

Eight hours later my movie was still downloading. My son, on the other hand, was watching it in just two minutes…

In other words his broadband access is more than 240 times faster than mine.

Did I say "unfair playing field"? We're not even on the same planet.

Gainsayers of digital technology will shrug – why should anyone worry about these speeds if all people are doing is watching movies, playing computer games or generally wasting valuable time in front of a screen when they could actually be doing something useful?

Well, for a start, giving people more flexibility over when they do certain things can help create a more efficient use of their time. Take the BBC iPlayer as an example – you can carry on doing whatever important job it is and catch up with your favourite programme when it's convenient.

Or you could, if broadband speed wasn't so slow. I've never used BBC iPlayer here because it won't stream for instant viewing and downloading takes too long.

Okay, that still boils down to entertainment. What about the real socio-economic benefits of faster rural connection speeds?

Well many of us believe that modern information technology might hold the key when it comes to the future prosperity of more remote communities.

Jobs in rural England's main industry, agriculture, have been in decline for years and many have wondered what, if anything, would replace them.

Nowadays millions work in offices in front of screens – which means many can work at home in front of screens – which, in turn, suddenly releases the anchor in terms of where that home is.

Why live in a mean city street where crime is endemic when you can live somewhere peaceful and beautiful?

Many people have asked the question – which is why so many remote rural schools have, in recent years, seen a reverse in declining roll-calls.

Recently I even visited a group of Devon schools that had merged "virtually" in a move that both afforded a much broader scope to education while at the same time ensuring each establishment's future survival. They had only been able to do this because faster broadband had been installed.

The digital age is upon us – or should be. It is capable of opening countless doors of opportunity. And what kind of area tends to lack opportunity more than most?

The countryside, of course – where traditionally "nothing ever happens". While I applaud recent moves to bring Cornwall into the high speed digital age – I believe it's high time all rural areas were able to fly faster than their pigeons.