Snow joke, is it, deciding government policy on superfast broadband? Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt gets spoonerised just as he's announcing £50M of funding whilst his colleague Communications Minister Ed Vaizey has to abandon a meeting with fibre optic providers when one of his key civil servants is unable to leave home. As The Guardian article points out, if he'd had superfast broadband he could have video-conferenced into the meeting.
At a recent trade show I asked when my rural area could expect to see a speed boost and was told not to hold my breath. With BT running its glossy Race to Infinity campaign you'd think symmetric DSL was just around the corner. That's when you can upload as fast as you can download. Whilst Infinity appears all very transparent and democratic, it's no substitute for effective, needs-based infrastructure planning. That's where government needs to take a lead. Whether we're townies or country-dwellers we all need superfast broadband for our work, rest and play.
