He said: "Where fibre to the cabinet is the chosen solution it is most likely to be a temporary stepping stone to fibre to the home - indeed by 2016 fibre to the home (FTTH) will be available on demand to over two-thirds of the population.

"But the reason we are backing fibre to the cabinet as a potential medium-term solution is simple: the increase in speeds that it allows - 80Mbps certainly but in certain cases up to 1 gigabit - will comfortably create Europe's biggest and most profitable high-speed broadband market."

The alternative, Hunt said, is for the state to build a fibre to the home network, which he believes would cost more than £25 billion and take up to a decade to do.

He added: "We will get there far more cheaply - and far more quickly - by harnessing the entrepreneurialism of private sector broadband providers than by destroying their businesses from a mistaken belief that the state can do better."

The UK government has said that it hopes to have the best, and now fastest, broadband network in Europe by 2015, and has committed a minimum of £730 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).