Conservatives promise 100Mbps broadband by 2017

The Conservative party has revealed plans for telecommunications that may have an impact on business phone services and broadband.

Appearing on the Andrew Marr Show, shadow chancellor George Osborne said that, by 2017, broadband with speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) will be available around the country.

He said: “In the 19th Century we built the railways. In the 20th Century we built the motorways. In the 21st Century let’s build the super-fast broadband network that will create hundreds of thousands of jobs for Britain.”

George Osborne also declared that the Conservatives would open up the ducts and poles used by BT and allow third parties to use the infrastructure to install their own cables, effectively ending the company’s monopoly over local loops.

The government’s current target is to have 2Mbps broadband in every home by 2012.

Last year’s Digital Britain report also stated the governnment’s aim to supply 70 per cent of the country with ’superfast’ broadband by 2017.

Share with others...