This recent article on Localgov.co.uk talks about stringent rules being placed on the 10 proposed new "eco-towns".  Could and should similarly strong rule be applied to digital communications plans to guard against the digital divide?

http://www.localgov.co.uk/index.cfm?method=news.detail&id=65142

It's a topic that is developing increasing importance and the below quote from "Designing for the Digital World" (2002) suggests, that at least in 2002, little was being done by planners is this area:

Andrew Gillespie: Digital Lifestyles and the Future City

Gillespie concludes: “We are left to conclude that planners have yet to develop the awareness, let alone the experience or appropriate policy intervention mechanisms, that would enable them to influence the spatial development of a digital society. Somebody is ‘planning’ the digital city – the telecommunications companies perhaps? - but it certainly doesn’t seem to be the planners!”

Has anything changed since 2002 on this subject?