Sean Royce, KC's Commercial and Finance Director, comments:

"It is encouraging to see the Government collaborating with industry to improve the telecommunications network in the UK but its target for universal broadband access is nowhere near ambitious enough. We believe there is a business case for broadband providers to deliver universal access and we would welcome greater pressure from the Government to ensure they make the necessary investments.

Today KC provides 2Mbps or more to 98% of our network area and we have taken the lead in committing to the provision of at least 2Mbps across our entire network, including the most rural locations, by March next year – well ahead of the Government’s target which has now been pushed back until 2015.

We also believe broadband providers will need to go much further than 2Mbps if we are to transform UK PLC and make applications like telehealth and high definition on-demand TV a reality. Indeed, we are already working on delivering at least 10Mbps to the majority of our customers by the end of the year and we would like to see other providers to follow suit."