Tories promise super-fast broadband by 2017
February 12, 2010 at 4:03 pm
The fight to provide the UK with super-fast broadband has become a campaign issue for the major political parties now that the Conservatives have vowed to provide the next generation of broadband to the majority of homes across the country by 2017.
This ambitious target involves the provision of speeds up to 100Mbps, which will be achieved through a combination of fixed-line and mobile broadband connections. But with such a bold promise, how are they planning to pay for this revolution?
The answer is found in the BBC licence fee. The current government released its Digital Britain report last year, which promises 2Mpbs speeds for all through instigating a new 50p tax on landlines. The Tories have always opposed this plan, and instead they want to find the money through the licence fee so that no household will feel the effects.
The problem with super-fast broadband is that there are some rural parts of the country where it simply does not make financial sense for providers to install fibre optic cables because there is no market value. It is thought that about two thirds of the country will be covered by the market, but that leaves one third missing out.
And this is where the extra money from the BBC licence fee will come in. The Tories have said that they will be able to raise £130 million a year from their plans for the installation of super-fast broadband for all. However, the government has claimed that the landline tax will raise between £150 and £175 million.
Despite this, the Tories have said that they will also force BT to open up its facilities to its rivals to create more competition, as well as surveying the utility infrastructure of the country to find out where it could possibly lay more fibre-optic cables.
