Prominent figures in both the Labour and the Conservative partiy's have unveiled plans to improve the level of broadband access in the country.

At the Labour party conference in Manchester, prime minister Gordon Brown announced a new scheme to provide "broadband for all."

The estimated cost of the initiative is £300 million, the aim of which is to get low-income families connected to the internet.

Funding for the drive will come from the government's department for children and will be distributed in packages between £100 and £700 each, reaching one million households in the UK.

It is thought that this move will provide 1.4 million children with access to the worldwide web.

The scheme will be trialled in the early stages and then implemented throughout the country by 2011.

Phillip Parkin, general secretary of the union for educational professionals (Voice) commented: "There are still rural areas without broadband access. Distributing vouchers won't help if your village doesn't have broadband. Those children should not miss out."

Not to be outdone, the mayor of London Boris Johnson told BBC London that he plans to make the capital a truly "Wi-Fi city".

He indicated that the service may first be available in Stratford, the site of the 2012 Olympic Games.

Mr Johnson commented: "What we need is a city where anywhere you go, you can log on, you can get on the web."

However, he was not clear about whether or not the service would be free or whether it would be a commercial move.

It is possible that a two-tiered approach could be taken, with slower basic access available for free and higher speeds for a fee.

In related news, it was recently suggested that Cardiff could be the first city to receive the new next-generation broadband which could offer speeds of up to 100Mbps.


Wednesday, 24th September 2008

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