I note that the economic recovery package proposed in the USA includes between $6bn and $9bn to assist with the implementation of broadband in rural areas (The Register today). In the UK the Government is also talking about making the provision of universal access to broadband compulsory though I’m not sure whether they are going ot subsidise it.
What is worth noting is that the real debate in the UK is around how the country rolls out Next Generation Access which is fibre to the home and an order of magnitude up from broadband in terms of speed. This has been costed at £29bn.
There is a scenario where the UK could leave the USA behind in the internet infrastructure game. I imagine that the cost of implementing a NGA network in the USA will be an order of magnitude up again on the UK, just because of the sheer size of the country.
Unfortunatley (depending on your perspective) the USA is far better placed for the stimulus of innovation than the UK when it comes the applications to run over this infrastructure.
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