UK to guarantee broadband access to all households

The UK has become the first country to take the step of placing broadband internet access on the same level as sewage, running water, electricity and a phone line as an essential utility service.

Foreshadowed in the Financial Times on 14 January, the Promise of universal UK broadband is detailed in the Digital Britain report.

It was announced by the UK Communications Minister, Lord Carter, who has previously stated that broadband was no longer seen as a

“niche service for the technologically keen”. “It is an enabling and transformatory service and therefore we have to look at how we universalise it,” he added.

With details to be revealed later this year, the plan would involve both wired and wireless access and is designed to be completed by the 2012 London Olympics (about the same time as the UK will complete their switch to digital TV).

The 86 page interim Digital Britain report was released on 29 January, heralded with a media release

The report makes the case for universal broadband access in the first sentence of the foreword,

The digital information and communications sector is one of the sectors in the economy, alongside energy and financial services, upon which the whole of the economy rests.

Also in the words of the report,

A successful Britain must be a Digital Britain.

The SMH has also reported the story in an article entitled, UK government unveils broadband-for-everyone plan.

Australia's current tender process gets a small mention on page 17 of the report.