Levyfor broadband Britain?

[threaded]

I live way out in the countryside, fields to the horizon, all of the scrub land not farmed is designated nature reserve.

I get broadband at significantly better than 10Mb, and in both directions too.

The neighbours get their TV over broadband.

Oh, there again I don't live in some backwards dump where the government spends all its time thinking up new and interesting ways of creaming more tax off you all, rather than just setting the rules and letting the companies get on with it...

[swamp]

No, I do not live in the countryside. I live 18 miles from Chester, 19 miles from Manchester, 30 miles from Stoke, 35 miles from Liverpool. I do not live in the country.

Oh yes you do. I'm sorry to say you live in the arse end of nowhere!

HTH

[VectraMan]

No. Unless the copper line is ripped up and replaced with fibre I will never get more than 512kb/sec. Do you think that will happen in the next 30 years? Nope.

Yes it will. That's what universal service means. If they are going to enforce a 2Mb universal service, which seems likely, then they'll have to find a way even if it means installing your own personal fibre optic cable, and not charge you any more than any other person.

And actually they don't need to. They just need to get the signal closer to you (i.e. in one of those green boxes), which is probably what will be happening everywhere as a way of getting higher speeds.

The only fly in the ointment is they might decide that 3G, or worse, satellite is an acceptable alternative to a proper cabled network.

I think this is good news. The only part of this report that seems to not have been leaked is how it was going to be paid for, which made it all seem a bit pie in the sky. Now it seems like something that might actually happen.

[Troll]

Another day, another tax.

50p a month for starters.

And once the next General Election is out of the way......

Indeed ... you'll have to have the cost of all that monitoring of the internet added

[pzz76077]

Looks like we'll all pay a £6 levy on our phone lines to pay for broadband network in the UK. Fine, but we cannot get anything faster than 512kb/sec we are reliably informed. Seeing as we have virtually nil chance of ever getting faster internet connection, we are in a real rural telecoms black-spot, then why should I pay the extra £6 towards something we'll never benefit from?

The bottom line is that you will pay for any service you subscribe to one way or another. If its not a tax, then it will be higher service charges.

A 6 quid tax does not seem to be that much for the benefits that will be received and will deliver the service sooner than if we leave it up to the commercial operators to fund it themselves...

PZZ

[threaded]

The bottom line is that you will pay for any service you subscribe to one way or another. If its not a tax, then it will be higher service charges.

A 6 quid tax does not seem to be that much for the benefits that will be received and will deliver the service sooner than if we leave it up to the commercial operators to fund it themselves...

PZZ

I'm not saying you personally are a buffoon, but people who think this way are. This will just be another tax to go in the 'pot' to help pay for all the 'fairness' you see about you.

But on the upside you'll be glad to know your hard earned is going towards a monitoring system so the plod can know instantly who has been leaking that some minister has been claiming for watching porn on their broadband.

[Fred Bloggs]

Well, thanks all. I have a deep scepticism of any goevernment initiative. Mr Blair promised the earth WRT broadband Britain several years ago and nothing happened. (Wasn't that the case with every single one of Blair's "promises" though?). I admire your optimism but I do not believe paying £6 extra tax will change anything. I will revisit this in five years time and tell you if it happened or not.

[Fred Bloggs]

Oh yes you do. I'm sorry to say you live in the arse end of nowhere!

HTH

No, you're jealous. Because there's more Porsches, Ferraris, Bentlys and Bollinger bought in Cheshire than anywhere else in the UK except London.

[Churchill]

No, you're jealous. Because there's more Porsches, Ferraris, Bentlys and Bollinger bought in Cheshire than anywhere else in the UK except London.

tasteless, classless social climbing twunts - Shirley?

[BoredBloke]

How long do you think that this 6 quid is going to stay at 6 quid? I give it 2 years max before it's increased in each and every budget.