Better content for broadband, MPs urge
For more people to take up broadband, better content as well as faster connection speeds are needed, according to the House of Commons trade and industry committee.
But the MPs do not think there is a case for a large public subsidy to help build the broadband network.
Broadband adoption remains “modest overall” the committee said, in its UK Broadband Market report, with ten per cent of internet households using it.
There is a role for government in promoting broadband, the committee decided, adding that use of broadband could produce £4.7 billion in productivity and cost savings for small and medium-sized businesses.
“For mass take-up to be achieved, people will have to be given more pressing reasons than extra speed and a permanent connection change to broadband,” the report says.
“In other words, not only things they can do fast with broadband but things they cannot do without it.”
The government’s target is to make the UK the most competitive and extensive broadband market in the G7 by the end of 2005.
