Digital Britain – 50MB mobile broadband and Tube mobile coverage promised

The details from the government's Digital Britain report have been released, and being the nice bunch we are, we've trawled through the quite frankly massive document so you don't have to.

As expected, the government put a big emphasis on "universal broadband access" by 2012, meaning getting everyone across the country broadband internet access either through existing copper wiring or improved mobile or fibre-optic sources. But perhaps the most exciting news was the future plans the government has up its sleeve.

Firstly, reliable mobile phone coverage is being targeted, including plans for reception on the London Underground – which will be music to your ears, or your idea of hell depending on who you are.

We are also promised a second phase of "next-gen" broadband coverage, which could see mobile broadband speeds up to a whopping 50Mbps in main urban areas, going down to 4-5Mbps in rural areas, and faster mobile internet in general as a whole. We like the sound of that.

But of course, before we get there we've got to deal with the matter of getting all the country hooked up to broadband.

There is to be a £200m investment in this to make it happen, with a particular investment into mobile broadband for the third of the country unable to be serviced by existing copper lines or wireless coverage.

However, we're going to have to help to make this possible as well, as copper wired landlines will be charged a 50p per month levy to help fund the cost.

While the government wants to see the UK fixed up with broadband ASAP, it also wants to tackle piracy with the help of Ofcom and ISPs.

Similar to the announcement Virgin made yesterday, the report suggests ISPs take technical action to limit the bandwidth of repeat offenders, although there's no sign there would be permanent loss of connection like France's three strikes and you're out policy.

Elsewhere in the report, BT were encouraged to "respond competitively" to Virgin's 50Mbps fibre optic network, which can only mean more competitive pricing and increased coverage is on its way sometime in the future. Nice.

Let us know what you think to the plans below.