Battle lines drawn in UK broadband funding
Michael Carroll |
February 02, 2010
telecomseurope.net
The majority of UK homes will enjoy fixed-line broadband data speeds of 50-100Mbps by 2017, a political party has pledged.
A spokesman for the country’s Conservative opposition party says funds currently used for the UK’s digital switchover would be re-directed into the build-out of a super-fast broadband network if it wins a general election this year, according to reports in the
Financial Times .
The party would also force incumbent telco BT to open up its ducts to rivals to boost competition.
A total of £1.3 billion (€1.49b) could be raised over five years by re-allocating the proportion of the TV license fee currently used to fund the switch from analog to digital broadcasting towards the broadband build-out.
The current government is targeting the same 2017 deadline for super-fast broadband, but proposes to pay for it by taxing landline users £6 per year on-top of existing charges.
Links:
[1] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7941db6c-0e9f-11df-bd79-00144feabdc0.html
[2] http://www.telecomseurope.net/telecomseurope.net
[3] http://www.digg.com/submit?url=&title=Battle lines drawn in UK broadband funding&bodytext=Opposition party will drop landline tax
[4] http://www.telecomseurope.net/content/battle-lines-drawn-uk-broadband-funding#comment
[5] http://www.telecomseurope.net/print/9066
[6] http://www.telecomseurope.net/tag/bt
[7] http://www.telecomseurope.net/tag/digital tv
[8] http://www.telecomseurope.net/tag/fixed-line broadband
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