The government has said that it hopes to have the best broadband network in Europe by 2015, and has committed a minimum of £830 million up until 2015 to support the rollout. The money is being distributed to local authorities that bid for funding via a framework created by governing body Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK).

However, there has been growing concern around competition after BT and Fujitsu were left as the last remaining companies to be picked to compete under the framework, with seven other suppliers having pulled out. BT has so far won all the public money to roll-out networks in rural areas.

all guns blazing saying that the government lacked a strategy and that it had not thought through the complex issues.

The core focus of the Committee's report was around the government's reluctance to demand ISPs to provide open access to dark fibre. It suggested that Ofcom should force current infrastructure owners to provide open access at the level of the cabinet, and active and passive access, together with rights to install and co-locate active equipment on relevant links, at the level of the exchange.

Smaller ISPs could then rent the existing fibre that they are connecting to, and would theoretically allow any type of compatible access network to be built by any local community, SME or infrastructure provider.