The UK government has unveiled plans to reduce the number of people without
internet access by 2014. As part of a new government target to cut the 12.5 million people in Britain without
broadband access by 60 per cent, Digital Britain minister Stephen Timms has outlined plans to attract more than seven million new
broadband bundle subscribers in the next four years.
The scheme will target low income households and the elderly, and has the backing of 60 public and private organisations. In a sign of the changing nature of British society, Mr Timms said that internet access was ‘crucial for participation in the 21st Century society’. The benefits are more than simply social, insist the Institution of Practitioners in Advertising. The marketing industry body claim that the advent of universal broadband access in the UK would boost online
retail sales.
The focus on universalising broadband access follows the rise to prominence of netbook
PCs, which have demonstrated the demand for
portable internet access.
WiFi access is fast becoming insufficiently portable, and the extension of
3G networks to
laptop and
notebook users could change the way internet is used.