Unemployed should help build FTTH network, MP argues

Conservative MP for Haltemprice and Howden David Davis has argued that Britain's 2.4 million unemployed workers could be put to use to help deliver the latest in Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband networks.

"Building a superfast rural broadband network is largely low-skill - digging trenches, laying pipes, filling them in," Mr Dowd argued.

He added that only a small fraction of the cost of delivering the latest in FTTH capabilities will be in high-tech equipment and training, with the majority of expenses coming from the physical labour of installing these next-generation technologies and preparing the groundworks.

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt recently revealed that the coalition government has increased its targets for the delivery of superfast broadband across the UK in order to achieve its goal of the UK becoming the premier provider of internet services in Europe by 2015.

He noted that the aim is now for nine out of ten homes across the country to have access to these next-generation services in the next four years.