Cameron's regeneration pledge puts emphasis on NGN broadband

Superfast broadband to be rolled out to 13 million homes and businesses in two years

Cameron to focus on NGN broadband

Government plans to regenerate the economy will include rolling out " superfast broadband" to 13 million homes and businesses within two years, according to Prime Minister David Cameron.

He claimed government help would ensure at least some of these will be in rural areas and all "will be hooked up to some of the fastest broadband speeds in the world".

Ofcom has defined superfast broadband as offering download speeds of more than the 24Mbit/s currently available via a traditional copper network.

Cameron was spelling out his government's plans to regenerate the private sector in a speech to the Confederation of British Industry's (CBIs) annual conference.

The Prime Minister said the government's plans involve proposals to "unlock" £200m of public and private sector investment, claiming that collaboration with the telecommunications industry is already working, with Virgin Media rolling out its new superfast service this week.

He said: "This is incredibly exciting – and a clear demonstration of how determined we are to work with you to build the right framework for growth in Britain."

Cameron talked of ICT services like Skype and Facebook generating billions of dollars and Apple, Cisco and Google as examples of businesses with a market value of over £100bn, citing them as examples of the growth achievable where businesses are innovative.