Broadband tax to be levied

[satsid]

Might have been posted before here,but i will add.

Broadband tax to be levied per line not per household, says report

The government's proposed £6 annual broadband levy would be charged per phone line rather than per household according to leaked government documents seen by The Times.

The tax will also include VAT, meaning that a household with separate phone lines for telephone, fax and broadband would pay £21.15 a year, rather than the £6that had been mooted initially.

The tax is being introduced to help pay for the introduction of super-fast broadband delivery in rural areas of Britain. It is part of the Finance Bill that will be introduced early next year.

The Times reports that up to 1.7 million households could be affected by the plan to charge per line, and that the tax will be levied not just on copper lines, as initially planned, but on high-speed fibre-optic connections. The charge is to be levied through phone bills.

The Conservative Party has said that if it is voted in, plans for the broadband tax will be scrapped.

[waqasahmed]

I dont see what difference it makes if its per phone line or per household, seeing as though lines can be extended and landlines are effectively forced on those that have bb

Okay, so for the majority it makes no difference.

[TheCoder]

Pointless tax tbh. By the time its collected and distributed nearly 2/3rds of it is already spent (Yes, the government is very innefficient at collecting and distributing tax money) so in order to actually get the money they require they are probably going to have to increase the tax substantially.

Then, where's it actually going to go ?

Into BT, to fund a private company to do something that it should be doing off its own back. Will taxpayers ever see any real benefits, will they thump !

Whats the target of all this expenditure ?

So everone can get broadband

And whats the definition of broadband ?

Anything over 2Mbps

erm, yes, right. That really makes sense doesn't it. Raise Million of £'s to build an infrastructure that is obsolete before we even start !!!

[waqasahmed]

The tax NEEDS to go to making fibre optic cables, not just to get 5% of the country on 2MB broadband. Its not a tax just for BB, its a gov't tax in order to make money. This tax will also most likely never go away

Wed only notice a difference if it means laying down fibre optic cable, as companies would be able to compete more and offer higher speeds. 2MB is definitely achievable, because of the fact that 95% of people with internet achieve higher speeds any way because of the package they subscribe to

The gov't will get away with this tax simply because most people dont know anything about technology

[TheCoder]

Originally Posted by waqasahmed

The tax NEEDS to go to making fibre optic cables, not just to get 2% of the country on 2MB broadband. Its not a tax just for BB, its a gov't tax in order to make money. This tax will also most likely never go away

Way, way too expensive even for the Government to contemplate. Your talking £Billions for even a half decent fibre network like VM. For a full fibre to the door solution for everybody you'd probably need to bankrupt the entire country.

And yes, your correct, this tax will never go away. The government has seen an opertunity to levy an internet charge and pass it off as somehow beneficial and in all out interests The only thing guaranteed is that it will be raised every year, just like every other tax !

[waqasahmed]

Surely not? Surely the gov't gets more from our taxes than VM gets in revenue? They could also slowly start to switch over, if they dont have the money, all though it be very slowly

[TheCoder]

Originally Posted by waqasahmed

Surely not? Surely the gov't gets more from our taxes than VM gets in revenue? They could also slowly start to switch over, if they dont have the money, all though it be very slowly

Have you seen the balance of payments lately ?

If this country was a company it would very likely of already been declared bankrupt, wound up and the bailiffs sent in !

Yes, the Govt do get more from taxes than VM make but the Govt also has a hell of a lot more expenditure. They cant exactly spend the whole lot on shiny new fibre-optic can they ?

The amount of money actually allocated for this switch is tiny.

[River-Rat]

i just woke up, i thought this was a joke

well it sounds bad, but if it was to go making place all wi fis ect ie u got vm broadband and means you can use any hot spots, i would pay

[/24]

Was the reason that VM where able to buy the network in the first place not that the original companies ie NTL etc would have gone bankrupt from the cost of the cabling if it hadn't been sold off? we deffinitely do need some more HFC networks in the UK to give virgin a reason to be competitive, right now there is no need for them to offer competitive rates or anything as the broadband service they provide is far superior to anything else available to the general public in this country.

[sad11]

Originally Posted by /24

....... we deffinitely do need some more HFC networks in the UK to give virgin a reason to be competitive, right now there is no need for them to offer competitive rates or anything as the broadband service they provide is far superior to anything else available to the general public in this country.

Well said 24 I agree that VM need the competition as they are superior at the moment.