Brown's digital revolution.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailyexpre....uk/posts/view/164497

So "New Labour" will be making it possible for "super fast broadband" to be made available to all in the UK.

Won't some first have to own a computer, never mind about how to use one, before they have been dragged screaming into the "New Digital Age?

If one watches the short video, one cannot help but to notice another Brown "hiccup."

"That is why we have decided to raise the small amount of £50....ups 50 pence per month....."

[Gromit]

I already have fast Broadband and I pay for the privilege. Why should I have to subsidise other people's through a Broadband Tax, if they decide not to live in the countryside?

[Gromit]

I already have fast Broadband and I pay for the privilege. Why should I have to subsidise other people's through a Broadband Tax, if they decide to live in the countryside?

[S_C]

indeed

[milliezoe]

There is an election coming its all posturing !!!

[rov1200]

Long term projects have a habit of not being fulfilled.

Lets have high speed broadband but not until 2020.

Lets have high speed trains but not until 2020,

Its easy to promise the earth when the present government doesn't have to worry about how its paid for.

By 2020 we could each have our own monorail door to door whizzing us about the country. Instead of high speed cables we could transmit wirelessly to our local satellite station hub.

If we are looking so far into the future we should consider the possibilities of future progress not based on current technology.

[IggyB]

i'm more interested in how future proof the new technology is - what are the chances that in 15 years we have some new / better way to beam info around the globe that doesn't rely on cables etc

[saxy_jag]

Just for once, AOG, I'm in agreement. I have stuff all of an income, but I happen to prioritise my internet access. I don't smoke, I don't have Sky and I don't own a single item of furniture that isn't secondhand. Most people who want broadband, if they want it badly enough will, like me, justify a way of paying for it. Those who really can't afford it can get it free from libraries and learning centres. But of course, Mr Brown happens to be removing funding from those areas!

[Sandy-Wroe]

Whatever happened to the 'white heat of the technological revolution' that Wilson talked about?

[modeller]

gromit It isn't just those who live in the countryside who don't enjoy fast broadband . If you live more than 2 miles from an exchange you are also affected. The losses are caused by the copper cable and won't change until we get glass fibre cables and that is what costs the money. I think I'm right in saying the 50p a month is to finance Super Fast Broadband not just Broadband which is what we are paying for at the moment.

[saxy_jag]

To be honest, Modeller, it's perfectly fast enough for me.

[modeller]

Yes saxy-jag my broadband is OK for my purposes but sometimes eg. in early evening it does slow right down . My estate was built about 60 years ago and the old copper cables are often breaking down.

[jno]

Gromit, the answer may be that very few people move to the countryside; any traffic has been pretty much one-way since the indistrial revolution. I think it's probably a good idea not to depopulate the countryside any more than necessary, or pack more people into towns. If this means in effect bribing people to stay rural, with the promise of a special deal on communications for them, I think that's an acceptable bit of social engineering. Likewise, I don't mind subsidised postage stamps or bus fares.

[rov1200]

Maybe Birdie 2MB/sec is not fast enough to rival fibre optics at 100 Mb/s?

///The trials were a big success, offering up to 2MB per second - much faster than most broadband services on offer in the UK - for the price of £25.///

[Kromovaracun]

I don't know about anyone else, but it does strike me as a bit of a strange set of priorities to try and give everyone internet access when not everyone has a home...

[jno]

a matter of affordability, Kromovaracun? Just because I can't buy you a car doesn't mean I shouldn't give you a biscuit.

[Kromovaracun]

I don't know, I understand that logic but the analogy just doesn't feel the same. Maybe it's because Brown's dressed it up in all the obligatory 'digital age' rhetoric, it just seems slightly weird to talk about that . But if it's a matter of 'only 50p per household', surely it could at least do something elsewhere?

There again, I really don't have a head for numbers, so it's very likely that my sums just don't add up - it's just a first impression/gut reaction I had to the story, really. It just seems like a remarkably unimportant problem to try and be addressing...