Freeband TV News

Digital Britain falling to pieces

Chris Andrews

No broadband tax with Tories, but where will funding come from?

Back in June the UK government released its long-awaited Digital Britain report, which confirmed the government’s intention to provide broadband access of at least 2 Mbps to every UK household, while also laying out potential measures to deal with illegal file sharers (as well as funding recommendations for the BBC among other things).

The speeds that the government promised are, quite frankly, pretty rubbish compared to the 20 or 50 Mbps roll-outs we’ve seen in major developed areas, but for those in the sticks it beats crawling around the web at dial-up speeds, and is certainly a good start.

The problem, of course, is that private companies are not particularly interested in targeting rural areas where the concentration of customers is not such that they’ll get a decent return on infrastructure investment. This is why the government decided to go ahead with suggestions in the report for a 50p a month tax for everyone with a landline, which aimed to raise £150 to £175 million a year for ‘superfast broadband networks’, over the next seven years.

Treasury minister Stephen Timms confirmed in September that the controversial tax was to be included in this year’s finance bill, and would be made law before the general election, expected for May.

Great, if you’re a fan of the tax, but not so great if the Tories win the general election, which is of course looking increasingly likely. The Tories, it would seem, are no fan of the Digital Britain report.

In an interview with the Financial Times earlier this week, the Tory shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said the Conservatives would scrap two of the main proposals from Digital Britain, first that the BBC would be forced to share £130 million of the television licence fee with other broadcasters, and second that the £6 a year tax would be discarded, “as soon as possible” after the election. Unfortunately Mr Hunt did not explain how roll-outs to rural areas would be helped by the public purse, if at all.

Meanwhile last week the Finnish government passed legislation that will make broadband connectivity a fundamental right for every person in the country. ISPs will be obliged to offer connections of at least 1 Mbps to all of Finland's approximately 5.3 million citizens by July 2010. The country’s Ministry of Transport and Communications said the mandate was necessary to improve the availability of broadband in Finland's remote rural areas, and that it will improve business opportunities, access to online services such as banking, and quality of life for people living in sparsely populated regions.

The legislation is part of a commitment from the Finnish government to provide universal broadband services, which includes a pledge to make 100 Mbps broadband access available to all Finnish residents by 2015.

The question then, for both Britain, Finland and other European countries seeking to improve penetration, is where the money is going to come from. It seems difficult to demand that everyone has access to ‘fast’ broadband, and then insisting that private companies entirely foot the bill for it.

One interesting possibility is being launched in New Zealand, which really seems to be on the right track. The NZ government has begun a huge broadband roll-out in which it will soak up the commercial risk of the fibre network build, in the hopes of recouping its investment over time. The government has put aside $1.5bn to pay for the upfront infrastructure work, with private companies than paying this money back as customers are connected. This is progressive, and risk sharing certainly provides a fairer deal all round, while actually delivering fast broadband rather than just faffing about with promises.

As a side note, it also seems that the other big thrust of Digital Britain, cracking down on illegal file sharing, is not going to have the teeth that was previously anticipated. Earlier this year, business secretary Lord Mandelson said that internet service providers would be forced to hand over information on customers who persistently used illegal sites to music companies and film studios so that they could take legal action. This has been met with wide-spread outcry.

This is why culture secretary Ben Bradshaw earlier this week told the House of Commons culture, media and sport committee that these controversial measures were to be greatly watered down, and rights holders would have to obtain a court order before punishing persistent offenders by reducing or cutting off their internet connections. We can assume that the majority of these hard-core file sharers are not located in rural England; 26 hours to download an episode of Buffy just isn’t practical.

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