Broadband News

Landline levy will fund ‘superfast broadband for all’

Tuesday 16 June, 2009

Becca Talbot becca.talbot@consumerchoices.co.uk

Brits will be hit by a 50p a month tax on their fixed landlines to fund Digital Britain’s plans for superfast broadband.

Communications Minister Lord Carter has proposed a 50p levy on all fixed copper and cable telephone lines, to “provide a part subsidy for the deployment of next-generation broadband.”

The tax, amounting to £6 a year per phone line, will go in an independent Next Generation Fund. The fund will help broadband providers to deliver superfast internet to the final third of homes who will otherwise not be able to receive the service.

Felix Geyr, managing director of Be Broadband (www.BeThere.co.uk) said: “We’re not against the levy, but it would have been Be’s preference for this investment to have been put into providing the next generation of broadband. As a specialist broadband provider whose members have a clear need for higher broadband speeds, we are keen to hear the government’s plans for investment in this area.”

The Digital Britain report, drafted by Lord Carter and released today, included a commitment to provide every home in the UK to access to 2Mb broadband by 2012.

Michael Philips, product director at BroadbandChoices.co.uk, said: “It’s a bold move to tax all cable and copper lines by 50p per month to fund the infrastructure for superfast services to the estimated third of the population that will be left behind by the ISPs."

He continued: "This could potentially deliver some £175m a year towards the project. Unsurprisingly, the report has left any timescales for implementation – and the term of the proposed levy – frustratingly vague.”

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