New super fast broadband plans unveiled
July 9, 2010 at 3:35 pm
The next stage in the UK’s super-fast broadband plans has been announced. The new culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, declared in a speech at the Hospital Club in London that he wants the UK to have the “best super-fast broadband network in Europe” by 2015.
The development of super-fast fibre-optic broadband across the UK has been a matter of debate for some time now. The previous government got the ball rolling when it committed to providing broadband with minimum speeds of 2Mbps to the whole of the UK by 2012. In order to achieve this it had planned to introduce a telephone tax of 50p, paid on every landline in the country.
The new government always claimed that the plans were not ambitious enough, and it has already scrapped the 50p tax idea. With the appointment of a new culture secretary, it was clear that we were to expect some news on the broadband situation fairly soon, and Hunt’s announcement should get things going.
Hunt said that the government might have to spend up to £47 million to get high-speed broadband to the more rural areas of the UK. It’s not exactly sure how the money will be raised, but in the past the government has suggested that some of the BBC license fee could go towards it.
He also highlighted just how essential fast broadband is to the economy. His main aim is to increase speeds so that domestic businesses can perform better and help the economy out of the recession. He also suggested that the increase in broadband speeds could add up to £18 million to the economy.
