Broadband News

Broadband for all delayed until 2015

Friday 16 July, 2010

By Becca Talbot - becca@consumerchoices.co.uk

Hopes that homes in rural areas will have 2Mb broadband by 2012 have been dashed as government looks for new funding options.

The new government says it can’t guarantee 2Mb broadband for all by 2012 and is making the promise for 2015 instead.

The move has quashed the previous Labour government’s ambition to bring 2Mb broadband to every household in Britain by 2012.

Speaking at an industry event yesterday, Tory culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “I have looked at the provision the government had made to achieve this by 2012, and I’m afraid that I am not convinced that there is sufficient funding in place.”

The Labour government had provisionally assigned £250million left over from the digital switchover fund to help pay for its 2Mb broadband for all promises. It also intended to introduce a 50p per month landline tax to fund the rollout of superfast networks in rural areas, but this was shelved before the election and then abolished by George Osborne in June’s emergency budget.

The decision to push the date back to 2015 has come as a shock to many broadband experts and groups campaigning for decent internet access in rural areas that are currently broadband “notspots”.

Consumer Focus’ broadband expert, Jillian Pitt, said: “Often people living in these remote communities are amongst the most disadvantaged in our society, so there is also a wider issue about suppliers ensuring that broadband is not only available, but also affordable.”

At present, 99% of UK households are able to get some form of broadband connection, however about 2 million of these homes cannot get speeds as high as 2Mb, limiting the use of services such as video streaming and on-demand TV.

And around 160,000 rural households still cannot get any form of broadband, more than 10 years after the first services were launched.

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