Broadband News

It may sound like a leaf out of the Book of Obama, but Gordon Brown says broadband is as important to Britain's future as railways have been to its past. The Prime Minister's been setting out his stall ahead of the final Digital Britain report being published - and if he says it's coming out today, you'd have to be a bit of a chancer to bet against it.

Writing in The Times, Mr. Brown kicks off his article by stating that broadband Internet connections are, in the eyes of the "public" (which presumably means more than the 2000 people involved in the survey behind that popular fact), as important to daily life as gas and water. (You have to wonder if bringing broadband to remote villages is now the priority for international charities - digging wells can surely wait.) But with speedy Internet connections now constituting an "essential service" for Brown, surely the pressure is on for the Government to deliver with Digital Britain. In fact, the PM does his darndest to set the stakes as high as possible:

Just as the bridges, roads and railways built in the 19th century were the foundations of the Industrial Revolution that helped Britain to become the workshop of the world, so investment now in the information and communications industries can underpin our emergence from recession to recovery and cement the UK's position as a global economic powerhouse.

Global economic powerhouse or not, the former Chancellor says the digital sector currently accounts for eight per cent of the UK's income; safeguarding it's future will both safeguard and create hundreds of jobs - so far, so predictable. While he says we need "a robust legal framework to combat digital piracy and secure the rights of Britain's creative talent," sadly there's no hint of what that might actually entail.

There are some tantalising glimpses of what Digital dreams may come later this afternoon though. The Prime Minister says the Government can help spread broadband via the "wireless spectrum," "liberalising its uses and extending mobile broadband coverage" - maybe Lord Carter and Mr. Meek have managed to cut a deal with the mobile phone companies after all. And the "Government must also complement and assist the private sector to move farther and faster" when it comes to rolling out fibre and cable to give super-fast broadband to the masses. When the PM says he won't settle for a two-tier" Digital Britain, he's talking about the broadband haves and have-nots of today: not the super-fast haves and have-nots of tomorrow.

It’s not all optimism: when Brown starts comparing broadband connectivity to having a universal postal service, you get the feeling there could be trouble ahead. But with a couple of hours to go until Digital Britain is published, there’s still a little time for a rose-tinted view of what’s to come: “Only a digital Britain can unlock the imagination and creativity that will secure for us and our children the high-skilled jobs of the future in a global economy.” Mr. Prime Minister, we’re waiting.

Further details at The Times, where Gordon Brown is the Prime Minister.