The Conservatives have vowed to provide the "majority" of UK homes with super-fast broadband by the year 2017, and hopes to do so by breaking a British Telecom monopoly.
Speaking ahead of an upcoming UK general election, shadow chancellor George Osborne has suggested that a Conservative government would deliver broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps within seven years.
In an effort to improve the availability of broadband in rural areas, Mr Osborne suggests "breaking up the British Telecom monopoly" to allow private investors from companies such as Virgin or Carphone Warehouse to invest in better cabling. Similar methods have proved to be successful in countries such as South Korea, but the Tories add that should private investors fail to provide the services required, a 3.5 per cent of the BBC licence fee - which currently gets used for the digital switchover - would help fund broadband expansion.
Appearing on the BBC's Andrew Marr show, Osborne said "In the 19th Century we built the railways. In the 20th Century we built the motorways."
"In the 21st Century let's build the super-fast broadband network that will create hundreds of thousands of jobs for Britain."
Backing up Osborne's statements, shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt adds that "we are currently one of the slowest countries in the developed world for broadband. With the Conservatives we'll become one of the fastest."
The current government has already promised universal access to 2Mbps broadband by 2012, with a 50p monthly levy - commonly referred to as the "broadband tax" - used to fund Labour's Digital Britain plans.
Commenting on the Tory promises, Labour treasury minister Stephen Timms said the Conservatives are "playing catch-up". The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, have also questioned the Conservatives funding methods, with culture, media and sport spokesman Don Foster stating "anyone can promise the earth - what matters is how you pay for it".
