Under the new UK budget, the country’s planned superfast broadband network will be partially funded by TV licence fees. This reverses the previous Labour government’s plans to finance the network with a new £0.50 per month levy on phone landlines, and…
Under the new UK budget, the country’s planned superfast broadband network will be partially funded by TV licence fees. This reverses the previous Labour government’s plans to finance the network with a new £0.50 per month levy on phone landlines, and puts the onus on a portion of the monies currently paying for state-owned broadcaster BBC.
Announcing the end of the telephone tax plan, which had been expected to raise an annual £175m, UK Chancellor George Osborne said: “We need investment in our digital infrastructure. But the previous government’s landline duty is an archaic way of achieving this, hitting 30 million households who happen to have a fixed telephone line. I am happy to be able to abolish this new duty before it is even introduced.” He went on: “Instead, we will support private broadband investment, including to rural areas, in part with funding from the digital switchover under-spend within the TV licence fee.”