Broadband tax on the way?

[darren-b]

As BT own what is known as the backbone and everything apart from cable goes through that, you have to either buy your internet access from a cable company, or a company that pays BT for the use of their infrastructure.

Apart from in Hull where it is all done by Kingston Communications.

Unfortunately this has led to them just sitting on their hands and trying to maximise the income stream from what they already have a monopoly on, the infrastructure.

BT is improving the infrastructure, but it is slower as looks at the whole country. Would you rather BT did what Virgin does and only cherry pick the profitable areas to deploy internet services to?

From the news reports, it seems more like money for BT (a subsidy for the roll out of fibre) rather than grants for people wanting to set up a new business providing a network for broadband "not spots" (or whatever weird term the media likes to use). This could be done through business link, for example.

This seems like a market then: instead of depending on one house, a commercial network independent of that would make much more sense.

Obviously, the speed would not be the same as 50mbit/100mbit potential of BT's cable network but then there is possibly WiMax.

However, Win2Win makes a good point. How will this reflect with UK and EU laws? As a comparison, consider TV license fee - the BBC would not get it if it ran adverts. If it did then run adverts and still receive money then every other network could rightly ask for a cut of the fees.

If the tax is to go ahead from a commercial perspective it would be fair to offer the money to companies willing to roll out some form of high speed internet for rural areas rather than subsidising BT (a commercial entity).

Have you seen anywhere where it states that this money can only go to BT and not any other telecoms provider willing to provide services to rural areas?

Just bear in mind what is behind this tax. It is aimed at getting next-generation broadband rolled out to areas that no commercial entity would bother with at the moment because they are not profitable.

[linc]

Have you seen anywhere where it states that this money can only go to BT and not any other telecoms provider willing to provide services to rural areas?

This tax is if you have a phone line (BT). This is for the next generation network (BT).

The digital Britain report suggests wireless ways of delivering broadband to areas without it, but most of these are not quite "next generation" in a practical setting (although some offer pretty good speeds - WiMAX, for example). BT's is.

Just bear in mind what is behind this tax. It is aimed at getting next-generation broadband rolled out to areas that no commercial entity would bother with at the moment because they are not profitable.

Yes and this is great as long as the Government doesn't forget what can be done on a local level by local companies (existing or new start ups).

[darren-b]

This tax is if you have a phone line (BT). This is for the next generation network (BT).

Have you actually seen anything official from the government that backs up your opinion. I've not seen anywhere that says if I have a fixed phone line from Virgin or Kingston Telecom (ie in Hull) I won't have to pay this tax. Nor have I seen anywhere that states BT is the only provider that will be subsidised to provide services in rural areas (admittedly it may be in the only operator intersted in doing it...)