Government lays out fast net plan

[DaBees-Knees]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10267392.stm

The UK's culture secretary has been talking tough on broadband in his first major speech on the issue.

Jeremy Hunt said that the previous government's commitment to a "paltry 2Mbps" (megabits per second) universal net speed was "pitifullly unambitious".

He added that it was "a scandal" that nearly three million households cannot access even this speed.

He said that his goal was to provide Britain with the "best superfast broadband network in Europe".

Details on how this would be achieved were scant but could include new regulation to force water, gas and electricity companies to open up their ducts.

"The biggest cost involved in rolling out new fibre optic networks is digging up the roads," he said.

"Cut these costs and, straight away, investing in superfast broadband becomes a substantially more attractive proposition," he added.

He welcomed Ofcom's proposals to open up access to British Telecom's ducts and telegraph poles.

Mr Hunt acknowledged that fast, reliable broadband is "increasingly essential".

Rhetoric from politicians about broadband is easy, but action seems to be a lot longer coming. 

[Bluey_412]

same problem we had in Aussie, Telstra would not 'open their ducts' to allow competitors.

Even the government's new FTTN network has had to install it's own ducts, and the govt has an ownership stake in Telstra...

But I guess thats what comes from bein srewed by big Sol