By David Meyer, 18 June 2009 09:15
NEWS
The Digital Britain report has drawn criticism from politicians and technology experts over its proposals for dealing with fibre rollouts and illegal file-sharing.
The report, published on Tuesday, outlines the government's plans for the UK's telecommunications infrastructure and digital economy. Shortly after its publication, Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative Party's shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport, called Digital Britain a "colossal disappointment" and lambasted the plan's proposal for a monthly 50p tax on fixed copper lines.
Lord Carter, the report's author, proposed the levy as a way of funding the rollout of fibre-based next-generation broadband to areas of the country where operators might not see a business case for investment. Speaking in Parliament, Hunt said a better tactic would be to stimulate investment by changing regulations to encourage providers to spend on fibre development.
"The cable revolution happened without a cable tax. The satellite revolution happened without a satellite tax," Hunt told Parliament on Wednesday. "Everyone recognises that public investment may be necessary to reach more remote parts of the country but simply slapping on an extra tax is an old economy solution to a new economy problem."
Hunt also pointed out that Digital Britain announced 12 new consultations, and called the report "government of the management consultants, for the management consultants, by the management consultants".
The tax will benefit the biggest existing providers in the UK, according to Chris Smedley, chief executive of fibre-optic network company Geo.
"The tax will only raise around £170m per year from consumers, and [this will] be presumably handed straight back to BT and Virgin Media - who will still have the UK market in a stranglehold - and then only [used] to deliver fibre to the cabinet," Smedley said in a statement.
"Just as importantly, the government will still levy rates on fibre once it's in use, perpetuating the problem of cable lying dormant in the ground. Removing these [rates] would have been a quick and easy way to promote a fibre future for the UK."
Smedley also attacked the 2Mbps base speed for universal broadband coverage proposed by Carter, saying it leaves the UK open to ridicule. "The UK is the world's sixth-largest economy, yet this report says it cannot justify similar investments to those already promised in the US, Australia, Singapore, Korea and Japan, which are aiming to deliver 100Mbps as standard," he said.
The base speed was also a sore point for James Parker, manager of broadband at moneysupermarket.com. "Internet users are increasingly accessing bandwidth-heavy services like streaming high-quality video, and our research shows a significant majority already find 2Mbps too slow for many of these services," Parker said in a statement.
Digital Britain's proposals for dealing with illegal filesharing drew praise and criticism from different quarters. The report outlines a process where ISPs will send warning letters to copyright infringers...
Click here for page two
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. karen challinor
a telephone tax to support internet investment while simultaneously taxing the ISP for fibre
not exactly joined up thinking is it
I suspect the legislation to pass this will contain a few clauses that will eventually introduce an internet usage tax
2Mb/s will make us a world leader - will it really, somehow I doubt that
ISp's handing over personal details to copyright holders - well they'd better have proof of copyright violation that will stand up in court first
which basically means deep packet inspection as you can call files anything and I wouldn't put it past a few enterprising people to share something innocuous with a suggestive name just to get a day in court and make the ISP look bad
DPI would avoid that but opens a huge can of worms over privacy of information and who pays for the equipment to do it
2. Anthony Hunt
This "Digital Britain" report is more about re-inforcing the monopoly of music and film companies. Downloading being the current witchcraft.
I can be sued for downloading TV, film or music, unavailable in this county legally, because the "industry" wants to control the prices per region (read rip us off).
Yet if I have my internet connection capped, slowed, filtered or even spyed on, I have no recourse, despite paying for a unlimited 8GB service, which I never get.
We should have had fibre to home years ago and the excuses coming from goverment for not doing this get thinner every day.
"Digital Britain" is a zero not a one.
3. drew stephenson
Not worth the screen space it was written on. They've managed to come up (once again) with a document that is out of date before it was issued. Hence the need for more consultation, and how much will this end up costing us?