Conservatives promise super-fast broadband by 2017

Posted on 1 Feb 2010 at 11:03

Tory Shadow Chancellor George Osborne claimed yesterday that a Conservative government would make 100Mbit/s broadband available to the majority of homes by 2017.

Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Mr Osborne explained that the new high-speed network could be part-funded from the BBC license fee. Private investment would be the key provider of funds, but the license fee could be used to help in rural areas where a simple business case was harder to make.

Mr Osborne said: "In the 19th century we built the railways; in the 20th century we built the motorways. In the 21st century, let's build the super-fast Broadband network." He went on say that such a project will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and warned that the UK was in danger of being left behind by countries like South Korea, who are aiming for 1Gbit/s.

The government has similar plans, but Mr Osborne accused them of a lack of ambition, aiming for a near-universal 2Mbit/s connections across the UK. He said: "We're talking about 100 megabits, which is a big step forward for this country. It means you can have interactive teaching over the Internet at home; you can have telemedicine"

He went on to say that this would be achieved by breaking up the British Telecom monopoly, allowing companies like Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse to compete on a level playing field. We're awaiting a response from the government, and will update this story as soon as we receive it.

Author: Seth Barton

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