Switchover cash to boost broadband

The government has confirmed plans to use excess cash from the Digital Switchover Fund to go towards future broadband provision in the UK.

Communications minister Lord Carter's Digital Britain report recently outlined the pledge to provide broadband of a minimum speed of two megabits per second to every UK household by 2012.

With broadband provision already patchy in some remote and rural areas of the UK, various ways are currently being discussed to fund universal network coverage.

Among rumoured proposals to raise funds for the project was the idea of imposing a tax on search engines such as Google, reports the Daily Mail.

However, a spokeswoman for the Department for Business has since told the newspaper that the government has "no plans to impose any new taxes" such as this.

She did re-affirm a commitment to using surplus cash from the Digital Switchover Fund - believed to be around £250 million - to boost future broadband provision.

"As announced in last month's Budget, we intend to use some of the underspend from the Digital Switchover Help Scheme to fund the delivery of universal broadband," the spokeswoman explained.

"Separately, in the interim Digital Britain Report we committed to examining the case for public incentives to aid the roll-out of next-generation access."

Next month Lord Carter will publish his final Digital Britain report, which is expected to outline firm future plans for broadband and the media in the UK.