EFRA Criticises Gov Broadband Policy
Posted: 15th Jul, 2003 By: MarkJ
Wow it's hot in the office today!; but that hasn't stopped the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee from slamming the UK governments rural broadband "strategy":
"We believe that the Government urgently needs to close the divide. We recommend that the Government now commit itself to ensuring that broadband is made available to all areas of the United Kingdom according to a defined timetable," said the report, titled "Broadband in rural areas".
The MPs have recommended that the government should spend public money to make broadband available in places where it isn't economically viable for a telco to build high-speed networks.
The government has shown a marked reluctance to go down the road of subsidising broadband rollout, insisting that market forces alone will suffice. However, this argument has not found favour with the select committee.
Unfortunately the government doesn't have the best track record where 'subsidising broadband' is concerned; in fact it flat out refuses such a notion.
While we have seen improvement in some areas via special 'projects' (Cornwalls ActNow etc.), this is only a token effort for a few places around an otherwise vast country. More @ ZDNet.
"We believe that the Government urgently needs to close the divide. We recommend that the Government now commit itself to ensuring that broadband is made available to all areas of the United Kingdom according to a defined timetable," said the report, titled "Broadband in rural areas".
The MPs have recommended that the government should spend public money to make broadband available in places where it isn't economically viable for a telco to build high-speed networks.
The government has shown a marked reluctance to go down the road of subsidising broadband rollout, insisting that market forces alone will suffice. However, this argument has not found favour with the select committee.
Unfortunately the government doesn't have the best track record where 'subsidising broadband' is concerned; in fact it flat out refuses such a notion.
While we have seen improvement in some areas via special 'projects' (Cornwalls ActNow etc.), this is only a token effort for a few places around an otherwise vast country. More @ ZDNet.
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