§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans she has to extend the broadband network to schools and universities; and over what time period. [6608]
§ John Healey[holding answer 15 October 2001]The Government have allocated around £80 million between 2000–02 on providing schools with broadband access. The money is allocated through regional broadband consortia (RBCs) and local education authorities (LEAs), who have been commissioned to provide cost-effective and co-ordinated broadband internet connectivity at 2 Mbits or faster to 20 per cent. of schools in their region, including all secondary schools, by August 2002. The Government intend to increase the number of schools with a broadband connection beyond the current target of 20 per cent. of all schools in future years.
Universities have had a broadband network for many years, called the Joint Academic Network (JANET). The network not only connects all universities, but also all colleges of further and higher education, and research centres.