Tech & Biz

Digital Britain Report: UK Tech Roadmap

by Jordan Yerman | January 29, 2009 at 05:43 am

408 views | 18 Recommendations | 4 comments

The British Government has released an outline of the Digital Britain report to Parliament, highlighting plans to boost the burgeoning communications industry. The report was made public- see new article.

The report promises a roadmap for universal broadband access, digital radio, digital content rights, and other elements of a scalable online future.

In a statement to Parliament, the Culture Secretary Andy Burnham said Britain "led the world in content creation".

But the Conservatives said the report promised "no new action, but eight further reports".

The full report and proposals will be unveiled in late spring.

Wow, that's an extremely bold claim... Burnham must be the Kanye West of Culture Secretaries. Hopefully one of the eight forthcoming reports can actually back it up. Meanwhile, Lord Carter, whose name is attached to the report, has pledged to deliver broadband to every UK home by 2012, while sponsoring legislation to fight online piracy.

The Communications Minister is not optimistic about ISPs dealing with piracy themselves:

The report said that there had proved to be "little support" for the preferred option of a co-regulatory solution to internet piracy.

However, at the same time, he wants the government to back away from tech firms who are building next-gen networks and tools:

The recommendations are that the government cut back on the red tape that is holding some companies back from building out next-generation networks on a par with Virgin Media's recently revealed 50Mb/s service.

ZDNet's look at the text of the report shows that they may be bluffing when it comes to actually having a plan for dealing with content-creation rights and enforcement.

We'll be following this via the Tech & Biz Channel.

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digirose

at 08:50 on June 25th, 2009

I never read stuff like this because it's way above my head but the mention of Virgin Media's 50Mg service caught my eye as they are my provider. At the moment my broad band speed is 4Mb which I am happy with. I understand that 50Mb will be useful for downloading massive files fast and some people will definitely want to be able to that. As for delivering broad band to every home in Britain, that is definitely spin as most ordinary people will not pay a monthly fee of about £40 for a faster internet. At the moment I get my phone rental and internet connection from Virgin Media for £21 per month, plus I get catch-up television, this was offered to me only because I was a Cable Television customer when Virgin took over. Some time ago I was promised a 10Mb service without any increase but I am still waiting.

Perhaps they who are in the postion to do something should be thinking of ways of bringing down the cost to poor people who may be being excluded.

agdobson

at 10:07 on June 25th, 2009

Anything that comes from this government in spin, and as for Britain "led the world in content creation" it might have done, during the days of the empire.

digirose

at 11:38 on June 25th, 2009

Hey you agdobson face, don't knock Britain, Little but mighty, that's what she is now and ever. You're supposed to comment on the contents of the article, say what you think about the new technology, etc etc ... not give us your twisted opinion of Britain