Coronavirus: ‘We ration our internet because of where we live'
A third of homes in rural areas of Northern Ireland do not have access to superfast broadband.
The average download speed in Northern Ireland is 55 megabits per second.
Paddy McEldowney, who lives with his wife and three children in a rural part of County Londonderry near the Sperrin Mountains, gets speeds of about one megabit per second.
"With my wife and I working from home and the kids home-schooling, we have to ration our internet use," he told BBC News NI.
Kate Clifford, from the Rural Community Network, said: "If you are interacting with government, the expectation is you go online, so the government must put in the infrastructure in rural areas that enables people to get accessible high-speed broadband."
The Covid-19 crisis has emphasised the greater challenges faced by those with poor broadband coverage, said a Department for the Economy spokesperson.
"Project Stratum (Stormont's plan to improve NI's broadband) aims to improve broadband connectivity by extending Next Generation Access (NGA) broadband infrastructure to approximately 79,000 premises across Northern Ireland that cannot yet access NGA broadband services," said the spokesperson.
"The target intervention area is 97% rural."
Video journalist: Niall McCracken
