Minister calls for boosted broadband speeds

In his first speech as Minister for Competitiveness, Stephen Timms MP called for a national plan to get the UK up to speed on broadband.

Connections in the UK are languishing behind the super-fast speeds available in other countries, such as South Korea, which Mr Timms believes could endanger the country's competitive edge.

He said that the last five years has seen the UK move from being neck and neck with Croatia on broadband usage to become among the world leaders, but added that the issue of speed was the next challenge to face.

"Other countries are starting to invest in new, fibre based infrastructure, delivering considerably higher bandwidth than is available in the UK today," he said.

"As Minister for Competitiveness, I see it as one of my highest personal priorities that we have a high performance telecommunications infrastructure in every part of the country, enabling us to compete successfully on a global basis."

To address this looming problem, Mr Timms has arranged a summit between the government, industry regulator Ofcom and the broadband industry to draw up a plan on how best to implement a speed boost.

"It is essential that the UK undertakes timely deployment of technology - we can't lag behind," he stressed.

The announcement of a discussion group to be held on the issue of broadband speed was welcomed by Kip Meek, chairman of the Broadband Stakeholder Group, who said: "Other countries are investing in higher speed broadband and the UK isn't.

"If we want to see the UK stay ahead amongst the international leaders in broadband, we must find a way to encourage timely and efficient investment."