Local providers 'must step in' to deliver broadband goal

Community schemes will be needed if the government is to meet its target of providing super-fast broadband to every home in Britain within five years, it has been claimed.

Speaking in the wake of yesterday's announcement by culture secretary Jeremy Hunt that every area of the UK will have fibre-optic connectivity by 2015, editor of broadband.co.uk Edd Dawson said local operators will have to provide coverage to individual houses.

Mr Dawson explained the government plans will deliver high-speed broadband access to every community, but work will still need to be done to extend that coverage to every home and business.

"Some communities will take it and run with it, they have got people with certain skills who live in those communities, but others will struggle a bit more to get it out to everybody's house," he added.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has promised to spend £830 million over the next five years with the aim of creating the best broadband network in Europe in the UK.