UK Government Reveals Plans for Digital Britain and Fast Broadband

The Prime minister of the Britain today outline new measures to put British‘s home internet access inline with the rest of Europe and the world.  At the moment majority of the homes in the country only has access to speed less than 4.5Mbps (megabit per second).  The government is proposing a £6-a-year charge on landlines to fund the project.

Currently the portion of the population that has access to super high speed broadband are those living in the cities ad major towns.  The proposed levy on landline according to the government is to prevent rural areas missing out on fast internet access.  Based on current trends fast internet access is becoming a necessity as more of us use it to access service and do our shopping.  Also the BBC is due to make an announcement soon as its decision on Project canvas, which is a partnership between itself and private media and telecom companies to offer free and paid subscription to television services over the internet via set-top box.

The plan is to allow Britain to have the fastest home to internet access in Europe, which is considered to be 50Mbps and over.  Currently, Britain is logging behind the rest of Europe.  Jim Knight Minister responsible for digital inclusion said “If you just leave it up to the market super-fast broadband will only go into the cities.”

With a general election schedule soon the issue is being debated by the different political parties, on how to make Digital Britain a reality for most of the population.  Some customers have already seen an increase in their telephone bill.  Virgin media which operates in the city and greater London is charging customers who are still getting their telephone bills on paper.  So if the current government is voted back in and they go ahead with the proposed plan then these customers will see another increase in their telephone bill on top to vat and paper charge.