Britain's government has announced that every British home shall have broadband access by 2012.

The current average broadband speed in Britain is only 3.6 megabits/s.That seems pretty slow to me but it's all I get in this village. What is it like in the States?

The government is saying that every home will be able to download videos. What does that mean do you suppose? Does it indicate a faster speed than now?

I'd hope that this all predicates the wholesale installation of fibre -optic cabling. I bet that the French government is installing that everywhere. When France Telecom or other providers there put their minds to it, such work gets done almost overnight.Donkey's years ago, when they decided to overhaul their antiquated phone lines, every subscriber suddenly got a free computer terminal and screen, for an information and access service called 'Minitel'.That was before people had pcs and the web.