Phone Levy for a Digital Economy

The Phone Levy

The government wants to put a phone levy on every landline of £6 per annum, in order to make higher speed ADSL broadband accessible to the 30% of the country who are currently missing out.  Where commerce has decided it won’t pay to go (typically as the installation by them is uneconomic) the government says we need to foot the bill! It is unlikely that the full budgetary requirements will be met, so some of this will still have to come from providers.

Some say “why tax everyone”, but our view (not surprisingly!) is that the world is radically changed for the better with the advent of the internet. Those without proper access may well need a leg up in getting access to the information and entertainment that’s available.

I happen to know an 80 year old lady (actually my mother-in-law) who now relies on the internet to such a degree that anybody trying to deliver a hard copy directory is told to take it away!  She says “How do they manage without the internet?  No directories, no books, no telephone calls and all achieved in less than half the time.”  She’s more than prepared to pay her £6!