Digital Britian - Telecoms infrastructure commitments by the UK Government

Digital Britian aims to connect all of Britian so that everyone can have access to 2Mbs Broadband by 2012. Its a long report at over 200 pages. So rather than try to read it all you could just go for a summary like this one which is called a tea-break guide to this planned revolution in Telecoms.

First interesting point in that article is how low Britian is in the league table of Broadband speeds. Some countries have really embraced it but the UK languishes at 21st. Then there is some information on the way the change in telecom infrastructure will be funded. But the best bit is saved to the end. It identifies not only the best word in the report (e-readiness) but also the best sentence:

"Work is well under way to create a PSN to supersede the overlapping and duplicative patchwork quilt or departmental or sectoral networks."

Sounds a good aim to me. If you want to read the other sentences you can read the full report or the executive summary at the Deparment of Culture and Media here

And for a super brief summary the two key commitments are:

"Availability of broadband has two components: the right network today and the right network tomorrow. To ensure all can access and benefit from the network of today, we confirm our intention to deliver the Universal Service Broadband Commitment at 2Mbps by 2012. This can be delivered through upgrades to the existing copper and wireless networks. We also propose public support for the network of tomorrow so that consumers in the Final Third who will not be reached by the market can enjoy next generation broadband. This will be a longer project which involves what amounts to installing a new network. The Universal Service Commitment and the Next Generation Final Third project are separate projects and need to be addressed in turn."