BBC may inject funds into UK broadband future

The £250 million surplus from the BBC's digital switchover fund could be used towards providing universal broadband in the UK, it has been announced.

Chancellor Alistair Darling's recently revealed Budget unveiled new plans to meet the government's pledge to provide broadband of a minimum speed of 2Mbps to every UK household by 2012.

The chancellor stressed the government's commitment to providing "broadband for all", but did not indicate any specific level of public investment into a high-speed network.

"It is vital to ensure the entire country and economy benefits from the digital age," he told the House of Commons.

"So I am allocating extra funding for digital investment to help to extend the broadband network to almost every community."

According to the Daily Telegraph, the Treasury is also encouraging talks with the BBC Trust "on how the emerging under-spend from the Digital Switchover Help Scheme can be drawn on to fund universal service and take-up".

Speaking at the Digital Britain summit in London, business secretary Lord Mandelson recently said that current broadband infrastructure build programmes could run the risk of half the population not being able to access this vital technology.