PM promises super-fast broadband by 2020

How fast though is anyone's guess

PM promises super-fast broadband by 2020

22 March 2010 9:40 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Your home broadband speed could be about to get a whole lot faster if Gordon Brown has his way.

The Labour PM might only have weeks left in office, but that hasn't stopped him promising to give every home super-fast broadband by 2020.

The announcement, expected on Wednesday, will promise a "radical" package of internet-led measures - coupled with funding to be announced in Wednesday's Budget - to transform the UK by 2020.

However it isn't yet clear how fast "super-fast broadband" actually is, although the government will promise, it is believed, 100% nationwide coverage.

In the speech, Gordon Brown will say that super-fast broadband is "the electricity of the digital age" which "must be for all - not just for some".

According to numerous sources on the Web, Brown plans to give everyone in the country a personalised webpage for accessing services within 4 years in a bid to reduce the cost of face-to-face contacts, with officials creating a single website - bringing together all government and public sector services.

"We can allow the market to provide a solution on its own terms and according to its own timetable. The result would be super-fast broadband coverage determined not by need or by social justice, but by profitability", Brown said in a speech which hinted at the up and coming announcement.

Titled mygov, the portal will allow people to manage everything from pensions and benefits, pay council tax, apply for school places and jobs, and book doctor's appointments - all online.

The PM also said Labour planned £30m of funding for a new Institute of Web Science, to be based in Britain and jointly headed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web.

"Jim Knight, the minister responsible for digital inclusion, said the government had to intervene to ensure super-fast broadband reached remote areas of the country", reports the BBC.

The government has not yet detailed how the scheme will be paid for.

Full tags
Software, Broadband

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