In response to the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt’s, speech today at a Broadband Delivery UK conference, Jillian Pitt, digital expert at Consumer Focus said:
‘We welcome such a high-level commitment from the Government to ensure that broadband reaches rural and remote areas and that everyone can reap the huge benefits being online can bring.
‘We are, however, disappointed that the time-table to provide a universal 2mbps broadband connection has been pushed back to 2015. Also, the Coalition Agreement itself acknowledged there are areas where the market alone will not reach. We would like to see a clear Government plan on what happens when this is the case. We would like to be reassured the estimated £250million under-spend from the Digital Switchover budget will be enough to tackle this issue.
‘Often people living in these remote communities are amongst the most disadvantaged in our society, so there is also a wider issue about suppliers ensuring that broadband is not only available, but also affordable.’
