Britain is falling badly behind the rest of the world in the use of broadband technology and the consequences could prove disastrous for education, health care, entertainment and the fight against global warming, one of the country’s leading computer experts has warned.

Professor Christopher Bishop, chief scientist at Microsoft Research Cambridge, who will present the Royal Institution Christmas lectures this week, said the government now needed to launch an urgent programme to install fibre-optic cables across the nation and boost the country’s broadband capacity.

To read this report in full in The Observer, see www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/dec/28/broadband-uk-ri-christmas-lectures.