Government Plan to Charge Users for Broadband Upgrade Could Hit EC Roadblock
30 June 2009The Digital Britain report, which has been proposed by Lord Carter, might face some legal trouble due to one of its suggestions of charging 50 pence per month from fixed line users for the purposes of funding an upgrade in the broadband infrastructure of the country. Approximately £200 million will be required for the upgrade, which will allow 2Mb connectivity to everyone in the country. This will be implemented partly by using the £6 per year, which will be charged from the users.
Lord Carter said that the extra burden, which the users have to bear, would be easily compensated for in the future by the increasing competition in the market, which would decrease the headline prices significantly.
The EC wants to check whether the proposal complies with the competition law or not. Funding to any industry should comply with the competition law. The spokesperson for the EC said that they were not sure about whether the broadband levy on the fixed line subscribers for funding the upgrade in the network would breach the competition law.
The problem is that the government can provide industry aid only within a limit. In all probability, the broadband levy cannot be an exception to this rule. A competition spokesperson from the EC said that unless the UK government decides upon the manner of implementing the project suggested in the report, it could not be said whether there would be any legal issues arising from it. The EC is currently unable to evaluate whether the levy complies with the EU state aid rules or not, he said. For information on your ISP, mobile broadband genie is a good site to look at for provider reviews and news from the likes of Virgin mobile broadband and the other top internet service providers.
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