The action plan to create 'digital hubs' across the country was published today by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. The strategy aims remove barriers to business investment in infrastructure and promote private sector growth across the UK.
Mr Hunt said: 'A superfast network will be the foundation for a new economic dynamism, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and adding billions to our GDP.”
'But it is not just about the economy, around the world there are countless examples of superfast broadband helping to build a fairer and more prosperous society, and to transform the relationship between government and citizens.”
'And shifting government services online will save billions of pounds of taxpayers' money. We want the UK to have the best broadband system in Europe by 2015. Our strategy, backed by a £830 million Government investment, will help deliver that by stimulating private investment and competition.'
Rural Affairs Secretary Caroline Spelman added that rolling out superfast broadband to the countryside was 'probably the single most important thing we can do to ensure the sustainability of our rural communities in the 21st Century.'