Hunt empties broadband funding pot across Blighty

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt ambitiously declared earlier this year that he wanted Britain to be gifted with the fastest broadband network in Europe by 2015. But as of today that plan remains a huge challenge, given that its success is heavily reliant on endorsement and big financial subsidies from local authorities and the …

[David 164]

Why not invest the money raise from the 4g auctions into our broadband infrastructor

So what are they planning on doing with that 4 billion they are expecting to raise from the sell of 4G here a idea how about they invest it in the country broadband infrastructure, provide FTTH to the home in cities and towns across the country or are they planning on saving it for tax cuts which they will announce just befor the next general election.

[tmTM]

The fastest?

I'd be quite content with just receiving the speed I pay for.

[Anonymous Coward]

We're anticipating the benefits of this quite soon

Our local authority has entered into a deal with a relatively local supplier (presumaly set up to respond to anticipated demand, have to respect them for that) to offer us a wifi ISP

www.fibrewifi.com

Very pleased (if it works, but our Urban Wimax has also proved good in the City so I'm hopeful)

[Anonymous Coward]

He should have announced 'unlimited' funding

... then he could have claimed 'up to' x amount , that way reflecting the same lies as the industry is used to.

[Anonymous Coward]

I like it!

And a reasonable use policy to boot. Perfick.

[Anonymous Coward]

Que? Trusting local authorities?

Epic fail.

There is a reasoned argument to put forward that the UK Riots have roots in how local councils have managed themselves.

Trusting local councils to deliver requires (as Labour observed) that funds be ringfenced along with a legal commitment (a law) to make sure that central government money (eg tax payers dosh) is spent as intended.

Otherwise (just like a teenager?) the intended spend will be decided on to a local project.

[HansG]

Formula One

The Beeb should be able to sort out the funding issues with all the money it is saving from not having Formula One any more

[Anonymous Coward]

This is just silly

Financial Crisis,

Police, Hospital, Ambulance Service cuts,

Mass scale rioting,

Public transport cuts,

Piss poor interest rates,

HUGE taxes,

Massive Debts....

But we've got really fast internet...

[Chris Miller]

Rather like HS2

I can see that there are substantial costs, but can anyone explain what benefits there may be from having a 1Gbps Internet link to every home? (Apart from the ability to download copies of every Star Trek episode ever made in a couple of hours.)

[Anonymous Coward]

What a complete and utter ...

... hulture secretary.

[Yet Another Commentard]

A question

Who gets to "own" whatever is put into the ground?

I mean, if we give (say) £500 million to BT or Fujitsu, so they will put in some cables, do we (as in The Taxpayer) get to charge BT/Fujitsu for their use? Does this mean some of the comms infrastructure going back into Government hands?

Or are we just giving money to a private concern so it can charge us for the money we we gave it?

[mittfh]

@AC 12:13pm

It should hardly come as a surprise, since the current government seem intent to remove ringfencing from everything (presumably with the intention that when the budget is cut, they can point the finger of blame at LAs / schools / privatised services rather than themselves).

FTTC may work for urban areas (cities / towns / village centres) but more far-flung properties are going to need something other than variations on a theme of ADSL. Some form of nationwide wireless access would be useful - for a start it would enable social care assessments to be completed electronically, from the client's home, directly onto the local authority's social care database rather than on paper (as has been traditional) or offline tools (which mean the assessment is lost if the laptop / tablet is lost / stolen between the client's home and the office).

[Anonymous Coward]

the London subsidy

This must be yet another part of that London subsidy I hear people whinging about. Well since I appear to be paying to wire up Mr Reeve's country estate so all the family can enjoy HD porn how about they shut it for just a little bit.

Anyway no doubt Mr Reeve will still decide he only wishes to spend £7.20 a month so his packets will now wizz ever so quickly down various bits of expensively installed shiny optical fibre before crashing into the same contented mess of 'bandwidth management' processors and oversubscribed backhaul links.