'Broadband tax' to become law before next election
The 50p-a-month 'broadband tax' on fixed phone lines, proposed by the Digital Britain report, will be made law before the next general election.
That's the word from Minister for Digital Britain Stephen Timms, speaking in London today.
The BBC reports that the minister, speaking at a debate organised by the British Computer Society, said that the levy, known as the 'next-generation fund', will be presented to Parliament as part of the Finance Bill. It's said to show the government's commitment to Lord Carter's report, published in June.
"We want to make high speed networks nationally available. The next-generation fund will help that and we will legislate for it this side of a general election," Timms said.
Other recommendations of the report will be developed in the Digital Economy Bill, due to be presented in November.
The levy, which will be applied to anyone with a fixed-line phone, aims to raise £175m a year to fund high-speed information networks.
Comments
Not to sure how it would handle page requests and uploads, chelseafan - Freesat is something of a one-way street...
50p a month what a load of rubbish. This is outrageous where i live i get 2mb broadband then you get all these silly companies stating 20mb broadband for me that is impossible like most people as the line is rubbish the exchange is so far away it might as well be on the planet mars. I would certainly pay for it if the service was good and speed is fast but broadband is going the same way as 56k speeds getting slower and slower but these companies making claims that you can get 20mb broadband but theres a catch which most people fall in to as i mentioned earlier.
can someone explain why bt or anyone cannot use freesat to beam broadband to the masses. this could be done on the cheap I would of thought.
What a crock. The ISP's should be forced to pay for network upgrades out of their profits. We already pay too much for sub-standard services. For the same price we pay for "up to 8meg" (which is actually about 2meg for most people), in Tokyo you could get 100meg fibre-optic. Rip off Britain as usual!!
I think the the ISPs should pay out as they tell you of 8mb speeds but actually give 4mb it's in there interest to invest in themselves for the future!