Timms to take over Digital Britain brief
Stephen Timms, a former e-commerce minister and technology analyst, will work across the Treasury and Lord Mandelson's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), according to the Guardian.
His main task will be to push through controversial plans for a £6-a-year levy on all phone lines to pay for the next generation of super-fast broadband networks and bring a Digital Economy bill before parliament in the autumn.
His appointment comes amid fears that the momentum built up by the outgoing minister, Lord Carter, in his final Digital Britain report in June has fizzled out.
His proposals included ensuring all British homes have access to fast broadband internet by 2012, switching off the analogue radio signal three years later, funding a partnership between BBC Worldwide and Channel 4 to help secure the latter's long-term future, and top-slicing the licence fee to pay for regional news. But since then, work on Digital Britain seems to have stalled. The independent body supposed to ensure that fast broadband is available to all by 2012 was meant to be set up last month, but it will not have a chief executive until October.
Read the full story @ The Guardian