article: The aim is to offer speeds of up to 1Gbps to households and businesses. Rather than relying on copper cables to connect them to roadside cabinets, fibre-optic cables will run directly to their properties. The plan, announced by the chancellor in November, has been called "a drop in the ocean" compared with what will be needed to make "full fibre" the norm. Although many households and organisations do not currently need 1Gbps speeds - consumers need only 3Mbps to watch the BBC iPlayer in high definition, for example - the idea is to provide a "future-proof" solution. The Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund's goal is to boost the number of properties with access to "ultra-fast" fibre-to-the-property broadband over the next four years. At present, "full fibre" is available to only about one million premises, representing about 2% penetration. That contrasts with Spain, where the figure is 80%. The government is tapping private investors to bring the total sum to £1bn, and the money will be managed and invested by two fund managers - Amber Infrastructure, and M&G Investments, which is part of Prudential. "Traditionally in Britain, full fibre has been difficult to finance because the industry is relatively young and a lack of certainty around future demand makes investment hard to secure," the Treasury said in a press release. "This has held back alternative providers from entering the market, and consumers have been left with limited choice, which, in turn, has restricted their ability to benefit from this latest technology." A spokeswoman for the Treasury told the BBC that while no company was excluded from seeking access to the cash, the fund was designed to be attractive to small network builders, which found it harder to attract capital than BT's Openreach division or Virgin Media would. But the Labour Party was dismissive of the news. "This is yet another re-announcement from a Government that just isn't keeping pace with developments in the industry," commented Tom Watson MP. "No matter how many times they announce this fund the reality remains that we are on track to have just 7% full fibre coverage by 2020. It's not good enough and it'll leave Britain in the slow lane for years to come." One industry watcher, however, said the initiative was "important" but needed to be tempered with realism. "Consumer broadband is cheap for us as consumers because we share it at some point in the network," said Andrew Ferguson, of the ThinkBroadband news site. "So, while you might have a dedicated fibre for yourself through to a place that may be 10 or 20 miles away, you will still at that point be contending for access with other people. "That may mean that at peak times, even with a theoretical 1Gbps connection, you won't be getting speeds that hit that target." Until now, the UK government's focus has been to deliver "super-fast" broadband speeds - meaning 24Mbps or more. It has pledged that 95% of UK properties will have this by the end of this year and 100% will have at least 10Mbps by the end
summary: The government has formally launched a £400m fund to boost investment in "full-fibre" broadband.