Hopes that homes in rural areas will have 2Mb broadband by 2012 have been dashed as government looks for new funding options.

The new government says it can’t guarantee 2Mb broadband for all by 2012 and is making the promise for 2015 instead.

The move has quashed the previous Labour government’s ambition to bring 2Mb broadband to every household in Britain by 2012.

Speaking at an industry event yesterday, Tory culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “I have looked at the provision the government had made to achieve this by 2012, and I’m afraid that I am not convinced that there is sufficient funding in place.”

The Labour government had provisionally assigned £250million left over from the digital switchover fund to help pay for its 2Mb broadband for all promises. It also intended to introduce a 50p per month landline tax to fund the rollout of superfast networks in rural areas, but this was shelved before the election and then abolished by George Osborne in June’s emergency budget.

The decision to push the date back to 2015 has come as a shock to many broadband experts and groups campaigning for decent internet access in rural areas that are currently broadband “notspots”.

Consumer Focus’ broadband expert, Jillian Pitt, said: “Often people living in these remote communities are amongst the most disadvantaged in our society, so there is also a wider issue about suppliers ensuring that broadband is not only available, but also affordable.”

At present, 99% of UK households are able to get some form of broadband connection, however about 2 million of these homes cannot get speeds as high as 2Mb, limiting the use of services such as video streaming and on-demand TV.

And around 160,000 rural households still cannot get any form of broadband, more than 10 years after the first services were launched

3 the mobile broadband provider came top in 10 out of 12 categories in a recent YouGov survey and beat off rivals including Vodafone to be named the UK’s best mobile broadband provider.

3’s mobile broadband network covers more than 95% of the UK and through some of the best deals on the market, including 15GB for just £15 a month and some of the most competitive iPad packages, 35% of all mobile broadband customers are now signed up to 3.

Joe Parker, 3’s director of mobile broadband, said: “It’s great that our customers have rated us the Number One Mobile Broadband provider in the UK.

“It is a customer endorsement of the massive investment we have been putting into our network over the past two years and the speed at which this programme is developing. The network continues to grow in reach, speed and capacity.

“It also shows that what customers value most when it comes to mobile broadband are reliability, speed, coverage, ease of use and great pricing – areas where we excel in the latest YouGov survey.”

Over the last 18 months, 3 has extended its network from 7,500 sites at the end of 2008 to more than 11,400 today – a figure that’s set to rise to 12,500 sites by the end of the year, further improving 3’s mobile broadband coverage.

BT’s trial, which runs fibre optic cables direct to home and businesses, completely bypassing the copper wire network, is being offered on a wholesale basis and it was actually a lucky Plusnet broadband customer that got the first connection.

“FTTP offers speeds of up to 100Mb down and currently up to 15Mb up (the upstream will be increased later in the trial),” said Dave Tomlinson from Plusnet.

“Unlike existing DSL broadband services there’s no copper involved in the connection. An engineer will run fibre optic cable direct to your home. As such, certain limitations on copper such as the speed decreasing the further you are from the exchange are no longer an issue.

“Is 100Mb overkill? What will people find to do with 100Mb?” he asked. “It’s hard to say, from an application point of view what services will make best use of speeds that high? File downloads will benefit of course and the faster upload will really help people that send large files or host services. Our first thoughts on the faster downloads will be the benefits it gives to people with slower speeds.

BT Wholesale’s latest trials, which were delayed by six months, have now gone live in the brownfield sites of Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes and Highams Park, London. Two additional areas are also due to be added to the trials in Leytonstone, East London and York, bringing the total number of premises in the trial to 40,000.

The new study by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB)  also found that a quarter of companies were unhappy with their overall broadband service

Some firms were so dissatisfied with their broadband speeds that 13% even said they would consider moving premises for a faster connection.

John Wright, national chairman, Federation of Small Businesses, said: “The online world is crucial to small business development, especially as small firms look to grow and expand as the economy recovers.

“These figures show that the broadband service provided to small firms is letting them down. Small businesses need fast and reliable broadband to ensure the UK remains a key player in the global economy. The Digital Economy Bill gives the government a chance to guarantee Britain becomes a real competitor and the FSB is calling on the government to enforce rules on service providers and regulators so that small firms are given the fair deal they deserve.”

The FSB is calling for a minimum 8Mb connection for businesses.

It must also be recognised that some operators such as BT have recently lauched faster broadband services.   BT has launched a broadband service that offers speeds of up to 40 megabits per second (mbps).   The new service, named Infinity, will use fibre cables and will give some customers an upload speed of up to 10 Mbs.

BT said 4 million homes and businesses would be able to get it by 2011. BT Retail said the basic 40mbps service will be offered for £19.99 per month on an 18 month contract. It will also charge an installation fee of £50 for those on the lowest tariff.  The current highest speed service from BT available to homes is 20 Mbs, though not all homes can get this top speed service.

  Here are some good examples of the interesting articles we have pulled together on Broadband: How to choose a broadband provider….How to Switch Broadband Provider..What is mobile Broadband….Best Value Broadband Packages

 The UK’s cheapest mobile broadband providers has just slashed its prices for existing customers, bringing its lowest-priced package to just £5 a month (06-05-08).

 The promotion, which cuts mobile broadband line rental in half for life, is only available to current 3 mobile phone customers.

And those signing up to one of its Lite, Plus or Max mobile broadband packages before 31 May for 18 or 24 months will also get a free USB dongle.

Broadband Lite, which comes with a 1GB usage allowance will cost existing customers just £5 a month from £10, Broadband Plus, with a 3GB usage allowance will cost £7.50 a month from £15 and Broadband Max, which has a usage allowance of 7GB a month will now cost existing 3 customers from £25 a month to just £12.50.

3 is currently upgrading its network to offer speeds of up to 7.2Mb but at present top speeds are up to 2.8Mb.

If you’re an existing 3 customer this is a great opportunity to try cut-price mobile broadband that stays low for the life of your contract – and even a free dongle worth up to £99.99.

We believe that if youd to keep an eye on your downloads with 3 as it has a set usage limit and charges 10 per MB over your 1GB, 3GB or 7GB allowance. Install our free Broadband Download Monitor on your laptop to keep track of your downloads and set an alarm to ensure you never exceed your limit,” he advised

 Previously, customers signing up to some “free laptop” deals from O2 had to pay a connect ion fee to get their laptop or netbook. Now however, both the Asus 1005H and the Samsung R519 are free on either the 3GB mobile broadband plan or the 10GB option.The Asus 1005H is an ultra-portable netbook with a 10inch screen, 160GB hard drive and built-in webcam. It starts at £25 a month with a 3GB allowance or £35 a month on the 10GB tariff, both with a 500MB monthly wireless hotspot allowance.

The Samsung R519 is a full-sized model, which comes with a 15.6inch screen, 250GB hard drive, DVD drive and webcam. It costs £35 a month on the 3GB package or £45 a month on the 10GB option, both with unlimited wifi.

All of O2’s free laptop deals also come with a 30 day Happiness Guarantee in case you’re not completely satisfied, and a month’s free access to the O2 Techies service – perfect for helping you get set up.

It is widely acknowledged that the free laptop packages with 02 Mobile broadband is a great deal for spreading the cost of a new computer, provide a great service and a fantastic value Mobile Broadband package.

Here are some good examples of the interesting articles we have pulled together on Broadband: How to choose a broadband provider….How to Switch Broadband Provider..What is mobile Broadband….Best Value Broadband Packages

BT said 4 million homes and businesses would be able to get it by 2011. BT Retail said the basic 40mbps service will be offered for £19.99 per month on an 18 month contract. It will also charge an installation fee of £50 for those on the lowest tariff.  The current highest speed service from BT available to homes is 20 Mbs, though not all homes can get this top speed service.

Only those who opt for BT’s most expensive tariff, £24.99 per month, will get the 10mbps upload speed. With the basic package upload speed is up to 2mbps.

As with lower speed services only those closest to BT’s exchanges are likely to get the full 40mbps.

The fibre service is being rolled out by BT’s Openreach arm and will be offered to other telecom operators to re-sell.

BT Retail said customers of the cheaper Infinity service would be limited to downloads of 20GB per month. Those paying more will get an unlimited service.

The faster broadband speeds that Infinity is based on, will be available to other telecom providers, so we can expect to see products from TalkTalk and Sky in due course, so the introduction of the faster speeds by BT will lead to a better broadband service for customers of a lot of telecom operators.

Here are some good examples of the interesting articles we have pulled together on Broadband: How to choose a broadband provider….How to Switch Broadband Provider..What is mobile Broadband….Best Value Broadband Packages

O2 Broadband offers three regular packages; Standard, Premium and Pro, which start at just £7.50 a month – as an existing O2 customer – for 8Mb broadband and “unlimited broadband” downloads, subject to a generous fair usage policy.

The Premium and Pro packages both come with 20Mb broadband and “unlimited” downloads, starting at just £10 a month and £17.50 a month for existing O2 customers. The Pro package also includes up to 2.5Mb uploads, a dedicated customer service number and an enhanced wireless broadband router.

Non-O2 customers will be charged an additional £5 a month for their broadband.

The free broadband offer makes perfect sense for anyone who wants to save money, while it offers 20Mb broadband and generous fair usage schemes starting at just £10 a month.

Here is a good example of some of the interesting articles we have pulled together on Broadband: How to choose a broadband provider….How to Switch Broadband Provider..What is mobile Broadband….Best Value Broadband Packages

Recent research from a specialised telecoms research firm advised that  trends in the telecommunications sector, it was advised revenues collected from cellular service providers last year totalled $624 billion (£374 billion).

In addition to this number being up by 13 per cent on the previous year, it was noted that projected figures between now and the end of 2013 could see the value of this field reach $877 billion worldwide.

The research  added that the Asia Pacific region was leading the race to adopt mobile broadband and that early 3G adopters were particularly prevalent in countries including Australia, Japan and South Korea. The research conncluded that mobile services are on a growth path with mobile and wireless broadband but that voice service are not going away where they will keep its lion’s share of operator revenue for the foreseeable future, even as mobile operators diversify.

Last month, 3 Mobile announced it would introduce a new wireless broadband package that would be on sale in time for Christmas and would combine flexibility with affordability across two separate plans.

A monthly 5 GB option was unveiled priced with a £15 tariff when bought alongside a £69.99 wireless modem, while for £99.99, users get the same technology with a 3 GB data limit to be used over a three-month period and topped up after this has expired.

Here is a good example of some of the interesting articles we have pulled together on Broadband: How to choose a broadband provider….How to Switch Broadband Provider..What is mobile Broadband….Best Value Broadband Packages

The funding was announced today (January 7th) by business secretary Lord Mandelson, who said it will upgrade the UK’s digital infrastructure so that more than 90 per cent of the population have access to the latest broadband. technology.  Investing in broadband will create jobs and give the economy a boost, while putting the UK at the forefront of the digital revolution.

According to the government, this is “essential” if Britain is to remain a major player in the world economy, as only 70 per cent of people are expected to make private investment in broadband before 2017.

The Government will provide money for the Next Generation Fund which will give rural homeowners with sufficient broadband to enable them to keep up with urban regions.

Currently, only about half of the country has access to broadband with a speed of 50 megabits per second but the government fears those in more isolated locations will struggle to catch up.

Proposals to help those in rural areas were initially put forward by local council leaders last year and will make the UK only the second country – after Finland – to carry out such a scheme.

Here is a good example of some of the interesting articles we have pulled together on Broadband: How to choose a broadband provider….How to Switch Broadband Provider..What is mobile Broadband….Best Value Broadband Packages