New broadband minister coming soon
May 28, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Ed Vaizey has been given the new post as broadband minister. He has been appointed as minister for culture, communications and creative industries, and he will work in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, with broadband being one of his biggest priorities.
The post of broadband minister is now seen as a very important position. The need to provide the country with a fast, effective broadband network to make us more competitive on the international market is becoming increasingly important.
The main role of the new broadband minister will be to ensure that the previous government’s pledge of a minimum 2Mbps broadband speed for the entire country by 2012 will be realised.
This won’t be easy, with many industry figures stating that it is going to prove a real challenge. Especially in the current economic climate, it will be tough to get the finance necessary to make it into a reality.
This is also made more difficult by the cancellation of the 50p-tax scheme that had been proposed by the previous government, where every household would have to pay 50 pence a month for each landline to pay for the development of broadband across the country. The new government has scrapped this and will have to find another way to pay for it.
The new broadband minister will also have to work on the unrolling of next-generation broadband across the country to provide faster speeds to as many areas as possible. Many think that the proposed 2Mbps is not enough and that much faster speeds are needed, so he will certainly have his hands full.
