“We are now ranked 33rd in the world when it comes to broadband speed, with an average that is nearly five times slower than South Korea”, he said.
“Within this parliament we want Britain to have the best superfast broadband network in Europe.”
One of the challenges of delivering fast broadband connections to the masses of course is connecting those in rural areas where it may not be economically viable for companies to go but according to Mr Hunt, connecting rural areas will be a priority.
“Government must ensure we do not open up a new digital divide between the urban areas and rural communities where superfast broadband may never be viable,” said Mr Hunt.
At the moment around 3 million households in the UK do not have access to a decent broadband connection and Hunt reckons this is a “scandal”.
He also reckons that having a super fast broadband connection will help to boost the economy by around £18 billion, create 60,000 jobs, and would also improve services for everyone.
“Superfast broadband is not simply about doing the same things faster. It’s about doing totally new things – creating a platform on which a whole generation of new businesses can thrive,” said Hunt.
The previous government in the UK as part of the Digital Britain report wanted to achieve universal access speeds of at least 2Mbps by 2012 and Hunt says that is something they still want to achieve although he also said that compared to the likes of South Korea, that figure was “pitifully un-ambitious”.
“The biggest driver of high speed broadband in Korea, where I was in January, is children getting help with their homework” said Hunt.
“Telemedicine is next – and already patients undergo heart surgery on the remote island of Guam supervised remotely by surgeons in Hawaii” he added.
The money to pay for the super fast broadband will come from the £47 million already approved by the Treasury and around £250 million from the BBC Licence Fee allocated for spending on the digital switchover.
Hunt also indicated that the government would be prepared to use legislation to force companies to open up their infrastructure to help deliver the superfast broadband across the country.
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Quelle/Source: Geek With Laptop, 10.06.2010
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