The 50p per month levy to be placed on all fixed copper phones won’t be enough to give total coverage of the UK with fibre broadband according to BT.
The “broadband tax” is to be charged for all premises that have a fixed copper line and was announced in the recently published Digital Britain Report.
The director of strategy at BT, Liv Garfield, said that she thinks even with the levy that there will still be a proportion of the UK where the fibre broadband won’t reach to. She thinks that it will help them to achieve around 80%-85% coverage and that 100% coverage is impossible.
The 50p per month (£6 per year) levy will raise between £150m-£175m per year that will be put in to the pot to fund the roll out of the fibre optic network into the hard to reach and remote areas of the UK.
BT have already started the roll out of their new fibre optic network and expect that by March 2010 there to be 1.5 million premises who will be able to connect via the fibre network.