UK ‘Broadband Tax’ Given The Green Light

Earlier this year as part of the extensive Digital Britain report lead by Lord Carter (the Communications Minister) the proposal for a ‘broadband tax’ was put forward as a means to raise money to fund the implementation of his plan to raise the internet connection speeds across the UK to a minimum of 2Mbps (for 90% of us anyway).

Well up until now this was merely an idea in the pipeline, admittedly quite away down the pipeline, but in today’s pre-budget report by the UK Treasurer (Alistair Darling for those of you less politically aware) it was announced that the plans for this tax would go ahead.

Not that it’s anything that is likely to break your bank – £6 per year for everyone with a landline isn’t, in the grand scheme of things, excessive – and the amount has in fact been criticised by numerous critic within the industry who don’t believe that the £170 million raised will be enough to cover what the government are expecting to achieve.

However the Conservatives have criticised the idea (which is so unlike a rival party!) saying that if they come into power they will scrap the tax and resort to public funds only when they deem the market to have taken broadband as far as it can, but given the fact that the money is specifically for the 30% of UK homes that are unlikely to get this kind of broadband speed merely through commercial measures.

But regardless work is still going on within the market to aid the expansion of next generation broadband: BT have committed to extending this out to 40% of the UK, whilst Virgin will be offering speeds of up to 50Mbps to around half of UK homes.

So it’s looking good for broadband, and hopefully we’ll be able claw back some of the massive differences in speeds between us and countries like Japan, Korea and Iceland! How far this will actually go towards this aim is debateable, but at least the base level should encourage more people to go online, and make it nicer for those already on!

What do you think? Is this kind of tax fair or should the funds be raised in another manner?

Via – BBC

Related Pages:

1. UK Budget 2009 Brings Promise Of Broadband For All
2. Tories Promise 100Mbps Fibre Optic Broadband For Your UK Election Vote
3. Carphone Warehouse Buy Tiscali To Become Broadband Leader
4. O2 Testing 4G Mobile Broadband Network (UK)
5. Sky Broadband – Unlimited Downloads

Get Your Free Zath Subscription!

Did you like reading this article? If so, stay up to date with all our latest content by either subscribing to our RSS feed, becoming a fan of Zath on Facebook or by following Zath on Twitter.

You can also sign up to the Zath Newsletter and receive email updates by simply entering your first name and email address below then clicking the 'Submit' button - signing up is risk-free, if you don't find it useful, you can unsubscribe at any point!

We hate spam too, we'll never disclose your email address to anyone else!