Breaking news 50p per month levy on fixed phone lines

[joss]

Sorry for posting this here. Just don't know where best to post it.
Breaking news That the Government is to place a levy of 50p per month on all fixed Phone lines.
"Every Briton with a fixed-line phone will pay a "small levy" of 50p per month to pay for faster net access."

Caption http://www.flickr.com/photos/downingstreet/3632316800/
"So if I just flick this switch we get £150,000.000 in tax ?"

BBC NEWS | Technology | Tax to pay for fast net access

Please move to a better location If possible, even the bin if need be.
Just thought it worth a discussion.

[GSMGuy]

THey are having a laugh????

We already pay for line rental AND broadband... Whats the bets this is to subsidise net access for poorer communities...

Mike

[haz07]

This is a joke. Nobody wanted to chip in when I didn’t have broadband access. Now I’m being forced to pay more for people who don’t yet have broadband. BT is a private company along with Virgin Media. So now I have to give them extra money for them to provide a service to make a profit on. Its like being forced to buy shares without any reward.

They say its going to be 50p a month. Is that with or without VAT? And once they start charging it will go up every year like everything else whether the rate of inflation has increased or not!

I’ll put it on expenses. Works for the government!

Where P2P is concerned it looks like I’ll be investing in a VPN connection. Let them try and stop that. I did want to give TPB something for everything they had been through and everything they are going to go through. Their VPN service is the way I’ll do it.

[Isitme]

Whats the bets this is to subsidise net access for poorer communities

Not exactly, it is to subsidise the cost of providing broadband to locations which are outside the '2Mb minimum' irrespective of how well off they are. It is a fixed 50p a month levy on fixed phone lines so there should be no question of VAT, whether this includes Cable lines is not clear yet. If it doesn't, it will be another reason for those who can to migrate to Cable.

[Postman Pat]

Sorry but i dont see why i should have to pay for BT and the like to expand and invest into their networks and maximise their profits? Even if it is only 50p. Surely thats the job of government . Anyway i thought the money was coming out of the shortfall of the digital switchover fund , which is coming in under budget.

[youravinalarrrf]

Yet another clear vote winner for Labour! Roll on the next election!

If these telecoms companies had been forced by the government to invest in new infrastructure as they should have instead of creaming off the profits none of this would be necessary!

[Isitme]

Sorry but i dont see why i should have to pay for BT and the like to expand and invest into their networks and maximise their profits?

Neither do I!!!! The ones who thought this up must be Tory party members and being paid by BT.

[dholdi]

There are around 25 million homes in the UK. For arguments sake lets say they all have a phone line then thats an annual income of £150,000,000. Whats the betting that only a small percentage of this would go into improving BB services and the rest would end up elsewhere ?

[Postman Pat]

Totally agree , BT shareholders must be rubbing their hands in glee, must think they have hit the jackpot.

[legoman]

Not to sound like I support yet another stealth tax, but 50p is not unreasonable, really. But things don't add up... 25m homes @ £6 a year will only generate £150m / year, which is surely barely enough to provide 2mbps to one village, yet alone a whole bunch of them!

I doubt very much that BT will launch "SmartPrice" telephone wires to out-of-reach communities...

A very real solution, however, is for BT (and others) to make use of the new WiMAX licences and technology to serve people off the beaten track, and this network should be paid for by the network providers (mobile phone providers don't charge to place a mast).

Cynically, this is just a way of trying to sway the vote of traditionally Tory areas with promise of "superfast" broadband services (2mbps is hardly superfast) that will be paid for by the city-slickers.