(a) Broadband adoption propensity—all areas. (b) Broadband adoption propensity—rural areas. (c) Broadband adoption propensity—urban areas.

Notes: Broadband adoption propensity is calculated as the proportion of firms who report using broadband within the E-commerce survey. Distance from broadband boundary is measured in kilometers. The location of the boundary is determined by the postcode boundary of the telephone exchange area of broadband enable exchanges, up to a maximum distance (5.5 km) that firms could receive an ADSL broadband connection. Positive values of distance are given to plants in locations where broadband is available and negative values to plants in locations where it is not. Observations are grouped into 4 km bins and the data points in the figure represent the average value of observations within that bin. We also report the local polynomial regression lines using observations for different sides of the boundary. Discontinuities calculated for firms across the whole of mainland UK in Panel a and separated into those in urban and nonurban postcodes using the ONS postcode directory in (b) and (c).