Super-vague
Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, has attempted to put a figure and a deadline on the government's plans for ‘superfast' broadband. He said the government is aiming for 90 percent of UK homes and business to have superfast broadband and all of them to have 2Mbps by 2015.
Clearly there are some pretty vague parameters in that statement, so we gave the department for culture, media and sport a call. It turns out that superfast means at least 25Mbps and that ‘by 2015' means before the end of 2015 - i.e. by 2016.
"If we press ahead with expansion of superfast capabilities, then we can put UK in the global fast-lane," said Hunt. "If we fail to do so then we apply a handbrake to growth precisely when we need to power ahead."
Hunt expects the market to provide superfast broadband to two thirds of the country (although it wasn't mentioned whether this includes public subsidies to BT), and that the state is subsidising the roll-out to the remaining third. It has set aside £530 million to help make this happen, which councils, quangos, etc need to apply for.
"We have set aside the money and the expertise to make this happen," said Hunt. "Now local authorities need to step up to the plate by bringing forward their own plans setting out how they will deliver this level of ambition."
