UK Government Shamed by Australian Pledge

UK Government Shamed by Australian Pledge

Because of the very modest broadband pledge the British Government made - 2Mbits/sec, shame has been surfacing after the Australian Government has pledged to deliver 100Mbits/sec IT connectivity to 90% of its population by 2017. The Australian Government wants to offer this IT service from IT services providers even though it is fighting to convince the industry of how many benefits this move would bring.

Senator Kate Lundy said that "We have a commitment that every Australian citizen will have access to at least 12Mbits/sec broadband, with 90% of Australians being reached by a fibre to their premises and able to access a 100Mbits/sec. Before making this commitment we went to the market and requested proposals for a national broadband network. Unfortunately no proposal came back that offered value for money." Also, the Australian Government wants to offer 2.2 billion dollars in order to get a computer to "upper secondary school students."