Brown lays out plan for Digital Britain legislation

Digital Britain laws expected soon

Prime minister Gordon Brown has announced plans for a Digital Britain Bill in his draft Queen's Speech, setting out legislative plans for the run-up to the next general election.

The Bill will underpin the government's pledge to introduce a universal 2Mbit/s broadband link "virtually everywhere" by 2012.

He told MPs the move will enable the government "to work towards a nationwide high-speed broadband network by 2016 with additional government investment unlocking new jobs and billions of extra investment from the private sector".

Brown did not mention the proposal in the Digital Britain report for a levy of 50p per telephone connection per month to fund the extension of the high-speed network to areas of the country where it could not be commercially justified.

The power to do this, if the proposal is agreed, will need to be in this legislation.

An accompanying document, Building Britain's Future, said the government would also review the powers of Ofcom to enable it to "strike the right balance" between encouraging investment and delivering competition in the communications infrastructure.

Brown also promised to create an environment that would ensure Britain attracts the high-tech jobs of the future with a new £150m fund to promote innovation in cutting-edge industries such as low carbon, biotechnology, life sciences, digital and advanced manufacturing. He claimed this would "lever" up to £1bn from the private sector.