Cameron’s latest plan would mean that a broadband connection is viewed as a utility, comparable to water and electricity supplies, and people would have the legal right to ask for affordable connections.
Advertisement
The Prime Minister is reinforcing his commitment to boost digital connectivity in the South West, as he prepares to announce plans for a universal service obligation for broadband.
Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged that all businesses and homes in the United Kingdom will have access to fast internet and broadband connections by the year 2020, reports the BBC.
Other aspects we believe that should be thrashed out is not just the download speed of any USO service, but a legal minimum speed for the upload and guidelines on areas like latency. The Government will be consulting on this in early 2016.
Ministers have alluded to plans to introduce a universal service obligation (USO) in the past, but with no firm commitment on delivery.
Former Daily Telegraph technology journalist Matt Warman, MP for Boston and Skegness, who proposed the debate, said without serious investment to help connect the ‘final 5%’ of the country, entire communities could be left isolated.
“Just as our forebears effectively brought gas, electricity and water to all, we’re going to bring fast broadband to every home and business that wants it”.
It said 95 percent of the United Kingdom population is on track to have access to government-sponsored broadband that provides speeds of 24Mbps or faster by 2017.
The Government also wants to make sure consumers have more transparency about the service they are getting.
Advertisement
The average United Kingdom broadband speed is 22.8 Mbit/s, according to Ofcom. Later this year, comms regulator Ofcom will release a new mobile app so that consumers will be able to check if their home Wi-Fi is working as it should be.
