In its recent election manifesto, the Labour Party committed to giving virtually every home in the UK access to broadband at least two Mbps by 2012, while the Conservatives proposed rolling out 100 Mbps broadband to support the hi-tech, digital and creative industries.
The Liberal Democrats also gave their backing to public investment in the deployment of superfast internet, pledging to target the roll-out at the areas of the country least provided for by commercial operators.
Commenting on the proposals, thinkbroadband.com editor Andrew Ferguson pointed out that the plans do not include much in the way of technical details.
'A lot of this … will be down to the Broadband Delivery UK team, who as yet have not published any definitions [of what constitutes 'superfast']. Ofcom considers 25Mbps or faster as next-generation and this is a reasonable definition currently,' he explained.
The expert also claimed that the market could be able to give access to 100 Mbps broadband to 60 per cent of the UK without any intervention from the government.
The Liberal Democrats also gave their backing to public investment in the deployment of superfast internet, pledging to target the roll-out at the areas of the country least provided for by commercial operators.
Commenting on the proposals, thinkbroadband.com editor Andrew Ferguson pointed out that the plans do not include much in the way of technical details.
'A lot of this … will be down to the Broadband Delivery UK team, who as yet have not published any definitions [of what constitutes 'superfast']. Ofcom considers 25Mbps or faster as next-generation and this is a reasonable definition currently,' he explained.
The expert also claimed that the market could be able to give access to 100 Mbps broadband to 60 per cent of the UK without any intervention from the government.
