CLA warns govt will miss super-fast broadband deadline
The government is at risk of missing its deadline for the delivery of super-fast broadband to 90 per cent of the UK, according to the Country Land and Business Association (CLA).
Slow funding processes and a reliance on fibre optic networks are prolonging the broadband speed gap between urban and rural areas, the campaign group warned.
The Conservative-led coalition is looking to deploy super-fast speeds of at least 24Mbps to 90 per cent of properties by 2015, along with minimum capabilities of 2Mbps for the rest of the country.
Harry Cotterell, president of the CLA, acknowledged that achieving infrastructure improvements on such a large scale is "not easy", but said the government has not helped itself by creating an overly-bureaucratic delivery system and being too slow to dole out funding.
"It would be much simpler if the funding was allocated centrally rather than giving it directly to local authorities, because they do not have the resources to plan for a super-fast broadband network," he added.
Mr Cotterell recently told the House of Lords select communications committee that the government should implement a universal service obligation making it a legal requirement for universal 2Mbps speeds to be introduced.
