The Digital Britain report has been released by the government and brings the announcement that every home in the UK will have access to broadband internet by 2012, in time for the London Olympics.

BT's obligation to provide every private property with access to a telephone line will be scrapped, according to proposals put forward by Lord Carter.

Instead, to make sure that every person has web access which is fast enough to watch videos online, broadband internet with speeds reaching up to two megabytes per second will be provided.

"Our digital networks will be the backbone of our economy in the decades ahead," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.

"It is as essential to our future prosperity in the 21st century as roads, bridges, trains and electricity were in the 20th century."

According to a report recently produced by Ofcom, it was found that one-quarter of people do not receive the broadband speed they expect when they sign up to an internet subscription.

According to a recent survey by Connect, the two biggest IT headaches for businesses were 'everyday hassles with IT' (37 per cent) and 'security concerns' (32 per cent).