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UK Government Announces Broadband Tax

Posted by kdawson on from the one-hand-giveth dept.

Barence writes "The UK Government is planning a 50p-per-month levy on fixed-line connections to pay for next-generation broadband. The Government claims that market forces alone will bring fiber connections to only two thirds of the country, so it plans to use the 'broadband tax' to pay for the final third by 2017. The plans form part of the Government's Digital Britain report, which also see the UK guarantee connections of 2Mbits/sec for every citizen by 2012." The report also threatens legal action and bandwidth restriction for repeat file sharers.

1 of 252 comments (clear)

  1. The actual report by krou · · Score: 5, Informative
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/16_06_09digitalbritain.pdf

    Other major points in the report (from this BBC article):

    • a three-year plan to boost digital participation
    • universal access to broadband by 2012
    • fund to invest in next generation broadband
    • digital radio upgrade by 2015
    • liberalisation of 3G spectrum
    • legal and regulatory attack on digital piracy
    • support for public service content partnerships
    • changed role for Channel 4
    • consultation on how to fund local, national and regional news
    • £130m of BBC licence fee to pay for ITV regional news
    --
    'If Christ had tweeted the sermon on the mount, it might have lasted until nightfall.' - John Perry Barlow