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Jeremy Hunt set to allocate broadband funding
The Culture Secretary is due to reveal the amount of money that will be allocated to subsidise the rollout of broadband in each local authority area.
The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has earmarked £530 million to spend on improving the UK's broadband infrastructure, with a further £300 million due to be invested after 2015.
Under the government's plans, all 25 million UK homes will have access to speeds of at least 2Mbps, while nine in ten will be able to connect to super-fast rates of 24Mbps and above. This will allow residents and businesses across the country to take advantage of services such as the BBC iPlayer, VoIP telephony and video conferencing.
Olivia Garfield, chief executive of Openreach - the BT division responsible for rolling out fibre optic broadband - expressed confidence that demand for high-speed internet connectivity will grow as availability increases.
"There is evidence that once you have access to it, the minute you've seen the new world, you would never go back," she was quoted by the Guardian as saying. "So, I don't believe there is a lack of desire, but it is a premium product, it will never be the de facto normal product."
BT's latest financial results, covering the three months to June 30th 2011, appear to back up Ms Garfield's comments. Although the customer base for its fibre broadband product - Infinity - only stands at just over 200,000, some 71,000 more subscribers signed up during the quarter.
However, broadband expert at Enders Analysis Ian Watt warned the government's dream of bringing super-fast broadband to 90 per cent of properties is set to be missed unless greater amounts of funding are allocated.
Instead, he believes the public subsidy will deliver the technology to around three-quarters of homes.
"It's more likely that high-speed broadband will be available to the centre of the village, for example to a school, library or post office," Mr Watt remarked.