I can't say for all schools in England, but children at my kids school who don't have a computer, get a laptop provided for free. There is no family in the UK who can't afford internet access, there is however, plenty of people who think beer and fags are more important.

I attended a teacher's conference in Bristol not so long ago - a DoE guy was telling everyone how their kids will use the internet to do their homework & showing off some Government software package to handle it. Many of the Teachers laughed at him & said up to 30% of their kids not only didn't have access to the internet, but their families couldn't afford a computer. Red faced guy cut his presentation short & left. So never mind Rural infrastructure, major low income areas of UK cities have been completely left out of the digital age.

Don't get too excited.. it's all part of a cunning Government Plan to close down Job Centres. Yes, every household will have fast broadband and a terminal so that they can look for jobs without leaving their homes!

The UK cannot remain a world leader in terms of economic output and services without investment in communications infrastructure. It is certainly welcome news that Lord Carter infers the Government may re-consider its position and play a financial role in the roll out of the next generation network. The Government needs to play its part - next to education and healthcare investment - there can't be many other more important projects than ensuring the UK's population has broadband connection and best position the country for competing in the global economy.

The next generation network is not just about saving on call costs with VoIP. It will help the business community to continue to thrive with the provision of more secure and intelligent bandwidth that enables applications like video on demand, energy consumption monitoring, IPTV, VoWiFi and innovative medical devices.

Maybe we should give everybody a job, car, and house, and throw in free cell service while we are at it!

When does this socialism shit end in the world? Get off your @$$ and buy your own broadband service!

In the FT it states 40% of UK homes did not have [a] broadband [connection].

L'Inq reports the above as 40% not having access to broadband. That's not right. Only about 4% of UK homes do not have broadband available to them now.

ie compare:

FT: "About 40 per cent of homes did not have broadband by last year, according to Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, and some households – especially in remote areas – lacked the necessary infrastructure to secure it."

L'Inq: "Currently, around 40 per cent of UK homes do not have access to broadband, and many rural araeas lack the infrastructure to support it."

As Scott says, or at least feed the damn thing through a spell-checker. Saves having to learn English proper.

Learn how to spell.

This is really important as I reckon a major chunk of the high street will be gone in the next 18 months. To be able to shop you WILL need a good internet connection to order stuff.

The high street's days are numbered. Folks need access to the online alternative.