The UK government has announced its support for the establishment of a basic broadband service for all in Britain by 2012, paid for by the telecoms industry.
The Guardian writes that Lord Carter - the new communications minister and former head of Ofcom - is expected to announce a new plan detailing this support in his Digital Britain report, which will be released later this year. Currently, more than one third of UK households do not have broadband.
Connecting these parts of the population is integral to the government's goal to create a digital economy. As part of this ambition, last year Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged £300 million to be spent over three years to provide 1.4 million children with free broadband and computer access. In his preliminary Digital Britain report, it has been anticipated that Lord Carter will alter the obligation under which BT must provide every household with a phone line to a new industry-wide responsibility to provide everyone with broadband.
He hinted at this in a speech given to MPs and the telecoms industry this week when he said: "Today we are way beyond the view that broadband is a niche product, it is an enabling and transformational service and therefore we have to look at how we can universalise it. We have to ensure that fairness and access for all is more than a soundbite in a manifesto."
The basic service is expected to run at 2Mb per second. Broadband has experienced rapid uptake over the last few years, with many providers - including Virgin Media, Orange, BT, Sky and AOL - competing fiercely over customers.
Mobile broadband has also seen recent growth, with network operators like T-Mobile, O2 and 3 Mobile pushing portable broadband dongles in high profile ad campaigns.
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