According to reports on ISPReview, the UK government has restated its goal of providing ‘Superfast Next Generation’ broadband to 90 per cent of people “in each local authority area” by 2015. And by superfast, they mean 25Mbit/s downlink speeds or greater.
Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, made the comments at the Race Online 2012 conference last week. He also confirmed his Universal Service Commitment to ensure that everybody in the UK has access to a minimum speed of at least 2Mbit/s by 2015.
He added that the government has budgeted over £0.5 billion to ensure coverage:
“The market is expected to provide superfast broadband to around two thirds of the country. The Government is supporting the roll-out of superfast broadband to the third of UK homes and businesses that would otherwise miss out. County councils, unitary authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships can apply for a share of the £530m.”
ISPReview mention that Ofcom's latest March 2011 report revealed that the current average fixed-line UK internet download speed is 6.2Mbit/s.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron also commented on Friday about the recruitment of 100,000 so-called “Big Society Digital Champions”, led by Lastminute.com co-founder and “UK Digital Champion”, Martha Lane Fox. Mr Cameron said:
“Today there are nine million adults in the UK who have never used the internet – and nearly half of them are among our most disadvantaged people. That’s why the work Martha Lane Fox is doing as the UK’s Digital Champion is so important. And it’s also why I’m so keen for everyone to get behind Race Online 2012 and its ambition to get as many people online as possible by the time of the London Olympics.”
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