Digital Britain Fears Come True
This is indeed the anti-climax of this Digital Britain opera. Almost all the UK broadband internet enthusiasts knew the hype that existed in the initial stages of the British communications minister Lord Stephen Carter’s Digital Britain interim report. The report was in fact published and briefed with a touch of rhetoric, although at present all the hype seems to be getting fast tapered.
Even in the initial stages, the Digital Britain concept of Lord Carter had attracted widespread criticism for the lower internet access speed prescribed by it. However, the regime along with Lord Carter had succeeded in overcoming the criticism with their articulate presentation of the punch lines ‘universal broadband’ and’ broadband for all.’ And, the common people of Britain were simply taken for a ride as they, amidst all the hype had condoned the 2Mbps speed.
Until the recently concluded Digital Brtain Summit, the public had not had the taste of what was in store for them in reality. To be more precise, until the speech of Lord Mandelson. There one could sense the subtle currents which apparently advocated a next generation broadband technology shrouding the UK that was all about express speeds. If the watchword in the Digital Britain Summit was fibre optics, the concept of a basic 2Mbps broadband for all households in the UK was conveniently pushed to the backyards.
Take the words of Dorothy Fairburn, the regional director at CLA Yorkshire, into consideration. In fact she has stated that Lord Carter was nothing but talking of a video-centric world, while the reality was that owing to the deficiency of fast internet connection access, economic and social deprivation was fast growing in the world. She adds that despite receiving repeated promises on the universal broadband from the government’s part, the fact remains that this was very much unlikely in the present circumstances without public investment.
