The opposition Labour party has slammed the UK government for delaying its original broadband for all target from 2012 to 2015, which is despite a broad opinion by many in the industry that the original goal would not have been achievable.

The 2012 target was announced while Labour was still in government (pre-May 2010). The party's policy proposed to fund the effort by putting a 50p +vat per month tax (levy) on all fixed phone lines (£175m per year), while the Conservatives preferred to use the BBC's annual Digital Switchover budget (around £130m+).

The Labour policy sought to make a minimum broadband speed of 2Mbps available to everybody by 2012 (Universal Service Commitment) and bring superfast services to 90% of the UK by 2017. By contrast the "new" Tory-led coalition government has followed a similar path, yet they pushed both dates to 2015; delaying the USC.


Labour warns that the European Commission (EC) has already committed to guaranteeing all EU citizens "basic broadband" by 2013 (Digital Agenda), which is two years earlier than the current governments 2015 target. However, the EU's target for "superfast" service speeds of 30Mbps is 2020, which is 5 years after the UK's new 2015 target for 25Mbps+.

The party claims that this will leave 18.1% of the population without universal access for up to another three years. In fairness Europe hasn't actually defined what "basic broadband" is and 99% of the country can supposedly already get a fixed-line speed of 512Kbps (0.5Mbps); if you believe BT's figures.


In reality Labour didn't get very far with the Universal Service Commitment (USC) when they were in power either and both parties have policies that, aside from a few key differences and targets, are otherwise very similar. On the other hand it's already possible to meet the USC by simply adopting a quick-fix Satellite solution, although some would view that as cheating.

Certainly one area that most people can agree on is how the government do need to move far faster than they are doing now. Building new networks takes time and the current levels of uncertainty over funding and timescales is already causing some degree of market distortion, with a number of councils putting projects on hold in the hope of gaining a government handout.