Chancellor George Osborne announced the plans earlier this year, which should see three million UK residents benefit from high-speed broadband by the year 2015.
Travel agencies, booksellers, music shops and video stores have all bowed to the greater consumer benefit of speed, flexibility, low cost and deep personalization provided by the Internet.
"Maryland and the NEC (Northeast Corridor) would benefit greatly from receipt of the federal high-speed rail funds recently rejected by the governor of Florida, " Democratic Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said in a statement addressed to LaHood.