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UK Government To Back Broadband-For-All

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the millions-more-botnet-zombies dept.

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.'"

10 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. 2mbits? woo-hoo! by Shakrai · · Score: 4, Funny

    2000 called. They want their broadband back......

    --
    I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
    We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
  2. Re:Only 2Mbit by RingDev · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm still at 1.5Mb you insensitive clod!

    -Rick

    --
    "Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
  3. Re:2mbits? woo-hoo! by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I live in the boonies of the USA and my connection peaks just over 1 Mbps (I have a WiFi connection to a tower on the local volcano. Not a typo.) 2 Mbps would make me dizzy with joy, especially since at peak times I sometimes get under 500kbps. A lot of people out there are still using a modem, like me until a few months ago.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  4. Utility by superpaladin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Internet is more and more a utility. People can't live without it, so I think the governament stepping in and offering free/cheap internet access for those who can't afford it is only fair. Plus they can pass it as a education initiative.

    1. Re:Utility by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If people can't live without the internet, how did humans exist throughout most of history?

      Times change. By "live", we of course mean "live by acceptable standards in a modern civilized world", not "continue functions construed by science to indicate a creature is alive". Most people with some inkling of knowing how to communicate with humans would have understood the implication by social convention, experience in which you appear to lack.

      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?

      Poorly and in an uneducated state.

      How do so many people, who voluntarily choose to eschew the internet and computers, survive?

      In their own little isolated worlds where nobody really cares about them.

      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.

      You're just not catching on that you're not nearly as funny as you think you are, right?

  5. Vendetta by torvik · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is just so V can stream to every screen in London with minimal buffering.

  6. Re:socialism by Mprx · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Network effects. The more people on the Internet the more valuable it is to everybody.

  7. Re:2mbits? woo-hoo! by Shakrai · · Score: 4, Insightful

    this is actually a decent number for an initiative such as this.

    No it's not, because by the time they are done spending money at the rate the Government typically spends it they could have bought a fiber to the doorstep system for every man, woman and child in the UK. Why would you spend a pile of money to build a system that's obsolete as soon as you turn it up?

    --
    I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
    We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
  8. Bad Idea UK... by DarthVain · · Score: 5, Funny

    You may want to talk to your retarded little brother USA, and see how that worked out for them.

    Gov'ner: Here's 250$ million, Broadband for all, yea!
    Telcos: Yea!
    Pleabs: Yea!
    Gov'ner: Where is our Broadband?
    Telcos: What broadband?
    Gov'ner: Where is our money?
    Telcos: What money?
    Gov'ner: *shrugs*
    Pleabs: :(

  9. Re:How about better jobs instead of lower costs? by owlstead · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, somebody is going to have to dig the trenches and put down the cables and all. I presume that this is exactly what they are doing. This way people earn money and you get something in return. This is typical behavior for governments during this particular economic crisis.

    Besides, for many remote places the cost will be prohibitive (of putting cables down) for an individual or group of individuals. So the government will have to put the infrastructure there for them. Otherwise they may face even more people moving from the countryside into the already crowded cities.