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Tories might lose the election over broadband
THE POLICIES of the Conservative party on rural broadband could see its own voters miss out on access to high-speed Internet services.
According to the BBC, an analysis by the research firm Point Topic suggests some of the Tories' key rural constituencies will suffer most if the Conservatives win the election.
The Tories say that they will hold back on subsidising fast broadband in rural areas and will scrap Labour's 50p per month tax on landlines that is intended to fund its buildout.
With this stance, ironically, the Tories are proposing to shaft their own voters, who will lose out on broadband if the Conservative party's policies are implemented.
Point Topic looked at the 253 seats with the highest needs for subsidy, those in areas where firms such as BT and Virgin Media are unlikely to offer services.
Based on election results from 2005, it found that the Conservatives could expect to hold 138 of them, compared to 63 for Labour.
The Conservative's plans for nationwide high-speed broadband were detailed recently and hinge on hoping that its close mates in the business world will stump up to finance rural projects.
The BBC points out that any Conservative administration would immediately be at odds with Final Third First, which is dedicated to getting broadband to rural areas.
With the election starting to look like it is too close to call, the Tories really can't afford to alienate too many more of their own constituents. µ
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How have BT managed to get people arguing over who pays the 50 tax when the argument should be is why is BT Wholesale not paying for this out od their still monopoly position.
If you have a phone line coming into your home or business that is not cable no matter who you pay your bill to BT are getting a huge cut of this.
BT have an obligation as the (even after umpteen years of dereg) monopoly supplier in the UK to provide this service under the Universal Service Obligation. There are still parts of the UK that don't even have basic ADSL let alone anything fancy.
BT are (as usual) trying to weasel out of this with this 50p proposed levvy. If they are allowed to do this everyone will be paying BT twice. Once it is imposed it will never go away, will never be ring fenced to do the bogus job it is nominated for and will be another tax on a phone line rental on top of VAT. It is as though the VAT on your line rental will now be about 22%.
Why are we letting them do this?
So this proposed "broadband tax" is to be... 50p a month? And the Conservatives think it's worth making an issue out of that? Good grief, that's only about ten times what the Royal Family costs each taxpayer - (less than a half pint of beer a year).
Considering that McBroon has put each and every taxpayer in the UK into debt for tens of thousands of pounds - in return for absolutely no benefit of any kind - that's a strange thing to focus on. Especially since faster broadband is a very useful benefit, which would probably pay for itself many times over within the first few weeks.
You will vote politicians out of office because someone might not get something that is really a luxury item more than anything else...but your not up in arms over your government clamping controls on the internet and deciding who and when will be shut off from the internet. Bizarre place you live in.
You are just a great big tory Mikef. Lets have some impartial comment on this matter please. And lets keep the pressure on all politicians to keep the 50p invetsment and deliver the fibre optic broadband for all.
Your comment is somewhat premature.
For instance, you choose to believe Labour will use the 50p fixed line tax for the purpose they stated - namely to fund the rollout of broadband in rural communities.
Sadly there is no precendent to suggest Labour will do anything they promise - in fact, more often than not the opposite of what they say happens.
If the Tories scrap the 50p tax, but still fund the broadband by other means have their supporters suffered?