UK plans universal access to high-speed Internet

[Deja Q]

Source: Google/AP

LONDON (AP) — About one-third of Britain's population does not have access to the Internet at home — a startling statistic that prompted a government promise Tuesday to overhaul the country's digital infrastructure.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown outlined a 200 million pound ($328 million) program that would ensure that every British home can have broadband Internet access at 2 megabytes per second by 2012. That's fast enough to buy products online and download most Web pages.

"Just as the bridges, roads and railways built in the 19th century were the foundations of an Industrial Revolution that helped Britain to become the workshop of the world, so investment now in the information and communications industries can underpin our emergence from recession," Brown wrote in an op-ed piece for the Times of London.

Roughly a quarter of Britain's 61 million people do not use the Internet at all, while nearly 3 million homes have connections that are too slow to download movies, shop online or easily navigate social networking sites. As many as 18 million people do not have any Internet access in their homes.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gL8xY3MlFOmcVqNod8BGmEgMvqtgD98RUVJO0

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I thought only the greatest country in the world would be first and top of the class on all these things? Hey republicans, where were you? I mean, in amongst calling the US the best country in the world, you lot sure did let a lot of things slip, so stop blaming us when you had constant Republican control of Congress from 1994 to 2006... and Presidential power from 2001 to 2007. There just is no time to really blame Democrats... yet...

[WriteDown]

1. With all the cameras in the UK...

Everyone will be able to see everyone all the time. :)

[tomreedtoon]

2. My friend in LA tells me...

"What we call high speed internet in the United States, people in Tokyo would laugh at."

Theirs costs much less than what we pay, and it's much faster. Perhaps one of you can look up the figures or tell the data or whatever. All I know is, it's not surprising that we Americans have been cheated by the megacorporations again.

[harmonicon]

5. same here in the UK

My cable internet connection runs at 10 megs for 18 pounds a month - about $25.

[WriteDown]

6. Yes....

But would people in Asahikawa say the same thing? Doubtful.

[Xithras]

3. Great Britain has twice the population of California packed into an area smaller than Kansas

Its geographic compactness, lack of large geological barriers, and high population density make these kinds of deployments a lot easier than they'd be in the US.

I don't want a federalized Internet anyway. Look at the fights that already happen over filtering in libraries. I would much rather see something similar to the Rural Electrification Act, which subsidizes the installation of the hardware. The local utilities get the installation of otherwise unprofitable broadband services subsidized, and in exchange they have to provide a predefined minimum level of service to those too poor to afford the service on their own.

[WriteDown]

7. These are the same reasons

that high speed rail is difficult except for over short distances and then even in some areas, it is still not possible.

[lindisfarne]

4. But what about the profits of the corporations? They're more important than providing a public

service!