ARCHIVE: Digital Britain

The Digital Britain Report, published in June 2009, set out an ambition to strengthen and modernise the country’s communications infrastructure so that the UK could  compete and lead in the global digital economy. This included the plans for universal service commitment and the roll out of next generation access broadband. The report has three broad themes:

  • Digital participation, to ensure that all citizens have the skills, motivation and confidence they need to get online and do more online
  • Digital Infrastructure, including universal service commitment, support for next generation broadband rollout, spectrum liberalisation and digital radio upgrade
  • Digital content, including a framework for tackling piracy, digital test beds to trial new business models and changes to our TV news model.

A copy of the report can be found at: 

Progress on Digital Britain is given in the Digital Britain Implementation Update Reports which are published periodically. The latest version is at:

To coincide with the launch of the Digital Britain report, the Commission for Rural Communities launched a report ‘Mind the Gap: Digital England - a rural perspective’ to highlight the rural broadband needs of rural communities.

Universal Service Commitment

The Government is working towards a Universal Service Commitment (USC) which will ensure that by 2012 a broadband speed of 2 megabits per second is enjoyed by virtually all people, irrespective of geographical location. The rural broadband issue was one of the major drivers behind the Government’s decision to make the USC accessible to all. The Government will make available £200m of public funds for this purpose.

Broadband Delivery UK

The Government has created Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) which will drive forward the Universal Service Commitment to deliver 2Mbps to every household by 2012 and will manage the spend of the £1billion Next Generation Fund to deliver next generation broadband to 90% of the country by 2017. 

Page last modified: 23 March 2010
Page published: 23 March 2010