 The Regional Broadband Consortia collectively subscribed to a 2 Mbit/s standard for broadband, for which the origins in the 1990s are unclear.It is not the case, as has been often alleged, that the RBCs created or imposed this standard on English schools, though they were active in reinforcing and publicising the standard.Though it did not appear clearly stated in the NGfL funding guidance until 2003, this standard had been inherited from various fore-running projects including the People's Library Network.