The British government has pledged to deliver broadband to every home by 2012 -- and will legislate to crack down on illegal file-sharing.
A report by the UK's communications minister, Lord Carter, includes a guarantee that every home will get broadband within three years, using fixed and wireless access technology.
There are 22 main points in the action plan, Digital Britain, which includes commitments to:
- upgrade and modernise wired, wireless and broadcast infrastructure;
- secure a dynamic investment climate for UK digital content and services;
- provide a range of high quality UK made public service content;
- ensure fairness and access, with universal availability and promotion of skills and media literacy; and
- develop the infrastructure, skills and take-up to enable widespread online delivery of public services.
Culture secretary Andy Burnham said: "Britain has always led the world in content creation - with the best music, films and TV - and it is vital that we carry forward this strength into the digital age. This is a significant report for the creative industries, taking steps to establish workable systems of copyright in an online age and to preserve choice of public service content. But it is only the beginning of the process and we need to work hard in the coming months to secure workable solutions."
Broadband is increasingly being seen as a token for technological status but the report defines broadband as a data rate of up to 2Mbps, which opposition spokesman Jeremy Hunt said is already below today's average access rate of 3.6Mbps. Hunt described the scale of the government's ambitions in this area as 'pitifully low'.
The anti-piracy measures in the report will mean that ISPs will need to get involved. In the main, the report says it's expected that warnings will be enough for most alleged offenders. In the worst cases though, ISPs will be compelled by a court order to collect data on offenders prior to legal action.