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More info on next generation levy

27 November 2009

A leaked Government document covered in a piece in the "Times" gives some more detail about the proposed levy to raise a fund to contribute to the roll-out of next generation broadband to the so-called final third of the country.

According to this document, the levy will apply to each line (and not just one line per household) and to fibre connections as well as copper ones. Also it will be subject to VAT so it will not be 50p per line per month but 59p.

Although the Conservatives and TalkTalk have opposed the levy, others - such as the Broadband Stakeholder Group and the Communications Consumer Panel - have seen the need for a next generation fund. In her remarks to a Westminster eForum this week, Panel Chair Anna Bradley said:

".. the UK's broadband infrastructure will need to meet consumers' future needs. To this end the Panel supports the ‘Final Third' Fund as a way of stimulating the deployment of NGA where the business case for commercial rollout does not stack up. We should not wait until some indeterminate point in the future to find out the precise limits of market-led NGA rollout. The maximum benefits to the economy and to society will come from public investment in NGA now. And this investment will cost less if it happens alongside commercial rollout."

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