Government reveals superfast broadband plan

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt wants a 'fibre point' in every community by 2015

In a speech today, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced plans to set up a fibre point in every community in Britain by 2015.

The announcement furthers the government's plans outlined in the recent Comprehensive Spending Review, which saw £830m made available to support broadband rollout.

"The strategy we are publishing today represents our plans for how to spend in a way that will stimulate the greatest possible investment in our superfast broadband network," said Hunt.

"We recognise that taking high-capacity fibre deeper into the network is likely to be key – which is why our goal today is very simple: to deliver a fibre point in every community in the UK by the end of parliament."

The responsibility for taking fibre from the points to homes and businesses will then be taken up by local operators and community groups, according to a report on the BBC.

Further to this, it was announced that £50m of funding will be made available for a second wave of superfast broadband market testing. This will be in addition to those pilots to go ahead in North Yorkshire, Herefordshire, Cumbria and the Highlands.

Proposals for these new pilot areas will be announced in April 2011, with a final selection announced in May.

Hunt said he recognises that fibre broadband alone is not the solution.

"No single technology will be suitable for all circumstances, and a mix of technologies – fixed, wireless and satellite – will be needed if we are to deliver on our ambition throughout the UK," said Hunt.

"And, at a time when half of all new web connections are mobile connections, it means awarding the 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum to allow the development of the next generation of [4G] mobile service".

Hunt admitted that Britain's broadband infrastructure was lagging behind that of other countries.

"Only 15 per cent of UK subscribers currently have speeds above 5Mbit/s, compared with 65 per cent in South Korea," he said.

"And only 0.2 per cent of UK households had a superfast broadband connection at the end of last year – compared with 12 per cent in Sweden and 34 per cent in Japan," he added.

"In the UK, 30 million people go online every day and nine million people haven't been online once.

"Our broadband infrastructure is aimed at the middle rather than the head of the pack."