Web revolution put on hold

Of course, the perils caused by the WikiLeaks affair are of a very different nature to the cultural and commercial concerns surrounding broadband in this region, but they underline the fact that mass use of the web will be one of the defining features of the 21st century.

So close attention must be paid to South Yorkshire Digital Region. There are fears the 100m taxpayer-funded scheme to bring next generation internet access to thousands of homes and businesses risks being undermined by a dispute between the leaders of the scheme and BT over unfair charges and the sharing of vital customer data.

The upshot, a lack of major internet service providers agreeing to offer the scheme to homes a year after its launch, will inevitably raise questions over the use of so much public money – which was negotiated in the days before Britain's austerity measures were introduced.

South Yorkshire's local authorities, which hoped to be at the forefront of a European drive for high-speed fibre-optic broadband, now face economic risks just as the region is trying to drag itself out of Britain's worst post-war recession.

It is unfortunate the scheme is so reliant on BT's Openreach arm, whose high prices for connection to the existing network are holding it back. This should surely be a matter for Ofcom, the industry regulator, because South Yorkshire could miss out on tens of millions of pounds of revenue unless it can generate widespread demand from domestic customers.

Although the Digital Region project must answer some questions, such as why its 100,000-a-year chief executive departed after just eight months in this post, there is still an undoubted wider public interest in its succeeding. The families and businesses who are already using the network have witnessed a transformation in the way they communicate.

Even if it takes a long time, the digital region scheme must be made to work. Its success will put South Yorkshire at the vanguard of a technological revolution.