Jeremy Hunt has promised a Conservative Government will focus on ensuring the majority of the population have access to a next generation high speed broadband network within 5 years.
The Shadow Culture Secretary argued that next generation broadband offers a great commercial opportunity to the UK, because of the strength of our creative industries.
And he announced that we will be launching a wide-ranging review of the UK’s creative and creative knowledge industries this Spring in order to inform our thinking:
“There is no question about our talent for creating digital content, content that can be traded and exchanged in Bill Gates’ global village square. The question is whether we seize the opportunity presented by that talent to build the next generation of global businesses based on the new technology platforms that are emerging.”
Jeremy stressed that the key issue in the provision of next generation broadband is creating a framework which allows private sector investors to get the returns necessary to make the huge investment required.
“This means creating a regulatory environment that stimulates investment both by large incumbent players like BT, or where they are slow or unwilling to do so, by more nimble newcomers. To do this we should oversee wholesale deregulation of the current broadband infrastructure.”
Read Jeremy's speech on next generation broadband