Government is looking to put its own house in order first as it hopes that widespread broadband coverage will lead to cost savings of £11bn across Government. "Faster broadband speeds will bring new, cheaper, more personalised and more effective public services to people," says Brown.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee (right) has a £30m budget for an Institute of Web Science, aimed to make more Government data readily available online.

Private investment route
Shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "Our ambition is to ensure that the next generation of Googles, Microsofts and Facebooks are British companies. To achieve this we need to ensure we have a superfast broadband structure that gives the UK a competitive advantage over other countries."

Superfast 100Mb/s broadband would be extended across "most of the population," is claimed as 50 times faster than Labour's planned network. Tories say that the new "right to data" - is to be enshrined in legislation - and would support the growth of innovative businesses that could make use of information. The data was worth about £6bn, they claim.

All items of spending of £25,000 or more by central government or quangos would be published online. For local government, the threshold would be £500.

Shadow cabinet office minister, Francis Maude said: "For too long we have endured a closed shop government - which keeps information from the public, fails to stimulate innovative industries and wastes money on bloated, unnecessary and (left)  gold-plated IT projects."

Snail postcode broadband today
Broadband deals vary according to postcode, so use an availability checker before buying say Simplifydigital’s Ofcom accredited impartial experts. They note that currently the broadband market is cut-throat at the moment with some great Easter deals out there if you hurry.

Little is like to affect Barra alas!

Cheapest broadband on the market is from BT's Plusnet currently offering 8Mb/s broadband with a 10GB usage cap, for £5.99/month which works out at less than 20p/day. 

Orange mobile phone customers get an even cheaper broadband deal which works out at just 16p/day (£4.88/month). Existing customers get a big discount on Orange Home Broadband Max package with a claimed super-fast up to 20 Mbs broadband, unlimited downloads and free evening and weekend calls.  'Free' for the first 3 months, £6.50 per month thereafter – giving the average monthly cost of just £4.88.

TalkTalk offers an alternative for those who want a broadband and home phone bundle.  They are offering a free speed boost allowing customers to get the fastest broadband connection available at their address (up to 24Mb/s) for just £6.99/month or 23p per day.  TalkTalk Essentials package comes with a 40GB usage cap and free evening and weekend calls.