The Dart Maker Blog

For long, the broadband industry has been speculating on the government’s funding plans to support the ambitious “Broadband for All” project. Alistair Darling while making the budget announcement claimed that the government will be lending its support to implementation of the Digital Britain project. However, the details of the funding plan have left several industry observers dissatisfied.

According to Charles Trotman, head of rural business development of Country Land and Business Association and a leading broadband expert, the biggest drawback of this fund allocation would be that the industry will not receive the pledged money before 2012, the year in which the project is supposed to be completed.

Speaking to The Guardian, Trotman emphatically stated that there is growing confusion in the minds of the broadband fraternity about the amount that the government would be releasing for the ambitious project. The government is planning to divert the savings from its digital TV switchover program to the universal broadband project. However, it is not clear as to what the total value of funding through this route would be, and whether it would reach the budget estimate of £250 million.

CEO of Point Topic, a broadband analysis firm, Oliver Johnson pointed out that the £250 million offered by the UK government for the project is much smaller a sum as compared to the funds allocated for similar projects by the US ($9 billion) and Australian (A$22 billion) governments. Although he insisted that he would rather wait for the final report from Lord Carter before judging the project’s feasibility.