UK Government To Back Broadband-For-All

Barence writes to mention that the UK government is throwing their weight behind a broadband-for-all initiative with an initial round of £250 million in funding. Using money left over from the digital television switch, the initiative aims to have a 2Mbit/sec broadband connection or better in every home by 2012. "Analysts welcomed the proposals, but say there are still many details to be hammered out: 'The Chancellor... needs to consider how to remove the barriers that prevent the people who cannot afford broadband to get connected. They need to ensure that competition in the market remains fair and consumers are given choice rather than one or two providers.'"

Comments

How about better jobs instead of lower costs?

[JSBiff]

You know, instead of government spending taxpayer money on initiatives to make things like this free or artificially cheap, how about the government instead work on making sure that the economy is strong, and people have good jobs, then they can have the money to pay for their own broadband.

Seems like way too many people want to use government to attack problems from the wrong end. Don't try to make it so the poor can afford everything - try to make it so there a fewer poor people who can't afford things.

Re:Utility

[MSTCrow5429]

If people can't live without the internet, how did humans exist throughout most of history? How are people alive in socialist utopias, such as Cuba or North Korea, where access to the internet for all but the ruling elite is a crime? How do so many people, who voluntarily choose to eschew the internet and computers, survive? Just because someone can't imagine their lives without a product or service does not mean that they literally require it to survive, or even if, peculiarly, that they will literally die without the internet, anyone else would be so affected be such a common and non-threatening condition.

Re:socialism

[computational super]

No, silly, it's not their income - they don't pay for it at all. It's the wealthiest 1%, who already have more than they need, who pay for it. It doesn't cost them anything. Well, unless you count all the unemployment, inflation and corruption that goes along with socialism. But hey, it's all worth it to me as long as I get my !