We examine the effects of broadband on establishment births for five types of areas, six industries and two speed levels. Econometric results indicate that broadband has an overall positive effect in larger, medium and small urban centres and in periurban areas but has little or no impact in rural areas. However, industry-level analyses show that broadband can foster establishment births in rural areas in some industries, including selected knowledge-intensive industries. Finally, there are no great differences between the impacts of basic and fast broadband, except in larger urban centres with a higher skilled workforce able to use sophisticated applications.