Map of the Week: Can we live without broadband?
So, when it comes to tightening our belts, we'd give up books before broadband.
That is one conclusion from today's Ofcom report, which considers the place communications technology now has in our lives, ().
Such is the importance we place on phones, internet and television, that we'd rather cut back on clothing and footwear than reduce our spending on our media devices.
What's more, when forced to prioritise among communications services, consumers who had all four were least likely to cut back on broadband.
A fast internet connection has, for those who can access it, apparently become a necessity.
This view chimes with research published earlier this year by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
It updated its work on Minimum Income Standards () - a consultation exercise in which panels of ordinary people are asked what they regard as the essentials for an acceptable minimum standard of living. (Some of you may remember my post on the original research in 2008.)
The panels were asked to consider whether internet access should still be regarded as a luxury.
Increasingly, I suspect, those who are don't have a fast internet connection know only too well what they are missing. Stuart Burgess, chairman of the Commission for Rural Communities, ):
The CRC's report, published this summer, claims that digital technology is "vital for the sustainability of rural communities and economies" and includes a map of those parts of England which are denied fast internet access.
I am told that some rural communities are so desperate to get connected to broadband, that they are digging the ditches and laying the cables themselves.
It reminds me of the early days of the railways when small towns would do whatever it took to get the tracks to connect with their neighbourhood.
I'm 
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