Tories make broadband pledge

Ahead of May’s general election the Conservative Party has pledged to deliver super-fast 100Mbps broadband to the majority” of UK homes by 2017 if it is elected to power.

Private investors will pay for the infrastructure needs in urban areas with a proportion of the BBC licence fee will be used to pay for the necessary cabling work in remote rural areas.

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,” shadow chancellor George Osborne told the BBC.

The ruling Labour party has pledged to deliver internet connections of at least 2Mbps in every UK home by 2012.