Digital Britain Report: What next

[Darcie]

The main points out of the Digital Britain report today were:

• a three year plan to boost digital participation
• universal access to broadband by 2012 - part of the BBC licence fee & a levy will be placed on all fixed phone lines to help pay for universal broadband
• fund to invest in next generation broadband
• digital radio upgrade by 2015
• liberalisation of 3G spectrum
• legal and regulatory attack on digital piracy
• support for public service content partnerships
• changed role for Channel 4
• consultation on how to fund local, national and regional news
•A small part of the licence fee digital switchover surplus will fund regional news pilots between now and 2013
•Martha Lane Fox to become "digital inclusion champion"

With a new tax at 50p/month on all fixed landlines to establish a national fund for next generation broadband, integrating Ofcom in regulating and eliminating illegal p2p file sharing - Illegal filesharing is "tantamount to theft", repeat offenders will have their broadband connection reduced - and the BBC to share a cut of their licence fee. Are these points seen as doable, behind the times or uncalled for fee's and procedures? For the country to move into the current & future digital phase required, does the legislation need to change, be more forward thinking as well?


Here you can find the complete Digital Britain report.

[Darcie]

I've been making my way through the full report and one of the more positive aspects of the Digital Britain report is their goals on Mobile Technology and 3G. In my opinion, Britain was/is already quite ahead in the mobile phone market, compared with the U.S. and that the iPhone was the first real decent phone in the U.S. where you didn't have to pay a fortune (after the initial purchase of course) to have great access & functionality. If Britain can keep improving and advancing in mobiles and mobile gaming, I think amazing achievements will happen.