Britain would be better-off doing this rather than building ahigh-speed line. High speed internet for the whole country would be a massive stimulus to all sorts of new business ideas and working practices.
Have you heard about B4RN (Broadband for the Rural North)? One of the most amazing community projects I've ever heard of.
They're using volunteers to dig trenches to massively cut the cost of delivering 1Gbps broadband to rural homes via fiber to the home (FTTH). Because farmers agree to let a trench be dug in their fields (getting insane broadband speeds and increased property values in return) and the trenches are dug by volunteers, it's possible to deliver 1Gbps for £30/month.
All this means that it becomes more economical to deliver broadband in rural areas where you don't need to tear up streets and and you don't need huge population density to justify the initial costs of laying fiber.
BT offered this (nationwide fire lookout) to the thatcher government 20+ years ago in return for 20 years to payback. Refused of ideological grounds unfortunately.
But that would not had let the fast boys in the city make a killing.
I suspect that France Telecom will contrary to EU regulations will not allow this local loop to be unbundled - France Telecom still acts as a defacto PTT and national champion
Eh, people doing internet things overestimate how game-changing fast internet is. I don't care how fast the internet is, people are still going to want to meet each other for dinner, see grand-babies in person, etc. Faster internet doesn't obviate the need for travel.
Cut even 1 trip in 50 and you can avoid building a lot of infrastructure. Netflix vs video rentals is one clear example of less trips, but there are plenty of others.
1) Cutting 1 trip in 50 is actually a lot;
2) A 2% reduction in travel doesn't do much when e.g. U.S. air traffic alone is growing 2-3% every year and car traffic is increasing at 2-4% each year.
I wish the US didn't have such an extreme hatred of rail. Ooh well, enjoy sitting in traffic for hours every day, my fellow citizens. You can't buy that time back later in life.
