Monday, Apr 27, 2009    Text size: 

"I do think that the digital revolution lies at the heart of success for Britain in the years to come," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. "Achieving that goal of universal connectivity to broadband will be a critical stepping stone to a digital Britain."

Lord Carter is credited with driving the Digital Britain initiative, which emphasizes providing citizens with minimum broadband access speeds of 2Mbps — a move which reportedly impacts an estimated 1.5m households.

The plan includes the involvement of mobile phone companies who may deliver wireless broadband services throughout rural areas where fixed-line installations would be cost prohibitive.

The government plan to require 2Mbps service was documented in the recent budget report, which claims this speed would "allow virtually everyone to experience the benefits of broadband, including the increasing delivery of public services online."

"It will also offer advantages to UK businesses, both those located in areas that will benefit from the network upgrade and those that make use of online channels to engage with their customers," the report added.

"It is vital to ensure the entire country and economy benefits from the digital age," Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, said. "So I am allocating extra funding for digital investment, to help to extend the broadband network to almost every community."

According to the report, the cost of providing Universal Service could be partially underwritten by savings realized on the Digital Switchover program — a fund, which is said by the National Audit Office to have a surplus of around £250 million — money which the government is said to be discussing with the BBC Trust.

"The BBC Trust can accept the prospective value of universal broadband access and take up, consistent with the public purpose of helping deliver the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services to the public," stated a representative of the BBC Trust.

Other revenue sources for the broadband expansion include a proposal to pass some of the burden on to "communication providers, and those who provide communication services over the network," for example, Internet Service Providers — a cost eventually borne by consumers.

A final report on how Universal Service will be deployed is scheduled for this summer, which should answer many of the remaining questions, such as the technical means of providing this access, such as via satellite or wireless broadband.

"We are looking at the details of the announcements made by the chancellor today," stated a BT spokesperson. "Significant investment will be required to keep the UK ahead of the game in communications sector and BT is already playing its part. Today's announcement sounds encouraging and we look forward to receiving further details."