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The government will support plans to open up various grids for rural communities to "piggy back" on village schools broadband, the Commons has heard.
Culture minister Ed Vaizey said there are currently some "technical difficulties" in achieving this but should they be overcome, it could be possible for web users to subscribe to their local schools broadband connection out of hour with a fee.
During questions in the Commons, Duncan Hames (Lib Dem, Chippenham) said there had been "impressive progress" in improving broadband speeds but learning institutions could provide high speed internet access to homes in rural areas that are still cut off.
He asked: "Will you look into opening up the various groups for learning so that people can pay to piggy-back on broadband access from schools out of hours?"
Vaizey responded: "We will be publishing a broadband strategy document at the beginning of the month and it will address this specific issue. There are some technical difficulties to achieving this but if they can be overcome it should certainly be done."
Former Labour communications minister Stephen Timms (Lab, East Ham) asked about the likely effects on competitiveness of the change in the timescale for the delivery of a universal broadband service.
Timms asked why the deadline had been extended from 2012 to 2015, when broadband is vital for the creation of jobs in rural as well as urban areas.
He said: "Before the election you described the plan to secure two megabit per second broadband access by 2012 as 'woefully unambitious'. Since the election you have simply deferred the deadline by three years to 2015. What became of your ambition?"
Vaizey said the UK would have the fastest broadband in Europe by 2015.
He added: "Our ambition doubled, tripled and became superfast. What we learnt from broadband providers is that they were already in a position to implement superfast broadband, so why push them down the slow channel when we can push them down the fast channel?"
James Gray (Con, North Wiltshire) asked what the government is doing to ensure that the broadband fund will be used to support rural areas.
He asked: "The government’s commitment to rural broadband is laudable, but does thesecretary of state agree that providers make a large profit out of urban provision of broadband, but that in rural areas such as my own they make a large loss?"
Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt provided assurances that the government will make sure the committed funds go to the rural areas, business and homes that so badly need it.
He added: "We have every confidence that we will have a solution that is not just 2 meg per home, as was the limit of the ambitions of the previous government, but the best superfast broadband network in Europe."
Mr Gray: The Government’s commitment to rural broadband is laudable, but does the Secretary of State agree that providers make a large profit out of urban provision of broadband, but that in rural areas such as my own they make a large loss? What will he do, therefore, to make sure that the £500-odd million that he is committing to broadband will be spread not equally between urban and rural areas, but especially towards rural areas to help businesses and homes which so badly need it?
Mr Hunt: The money that we have secured from the licence fee settlement is for the part of the country that we believe the market will not satisfy—that is to say, approximately a third of homes including, I believe, homes in his constituency, where we think that left to its own, the market would not provide broadband. We have every confidence that we will have a solution that is not just 2 meg per home, as was the limit of the ambitions of the previous Government, but the best superfast broadband network in Europe.
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