In the slow lane

[rov1200]

If you lived in an area not suitable for upgrading your internet speed via optic cable would you be happy to pay an extra �6/year on your BT phone bill so that 90% of the population can be connected?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8102756. stm

[daffy654]

Not really!
I live in a village in Lancashire and we didn't even get normal broadband until years after the cities and major towns,I expect we will also be low down on the list for fibre optic.

[rov1200]

I don't know what BT profits are but you would think they could share the costs with all internet service providers rather than using a net to catch all phone users.

[Oneeyedvic]

I don't know what BT profits are but you would think they could share the costs with all internet service providers rather than using a net to catch all phone users.

Why would they - they are a business with shareholders and it doesn't make any commercial sense.

The only way that would happen is if it wasn't privatised.

As it is, personally I am happt to pay �6 a year so that other people can get broadband ata 'decent' speed (but I should say that one of my businesses is a website based business so it would help me)

[VHG]

Well your existing phone bill (BT or otherwise) is already used to pay for upgrading exchanges and to build new ones.

Any company uses the money they get from existing customers to spend on new future projects.

In fact much of the money is also used on research that may cost millions and never lead to any new products.

So in effect we are all doing this already, paying for a service now to fund something that is to be used in future products.

[anotheoldgit]

Licence payers who do not receive all of the other BBC TV programmes, BBC3, BBC4, News Channel, Parliament Channel. BBC HD also help to pay for these now.

[another-view]

I think it's ridiculous. The internet is NOT a necessity and why should I pay to have it installed at people's houses when I have had to buy my own broadband myself.

[R1Geezer]

I don't object to the amount, the trouble is it's just another tax to get increased for ever and ever. Surely part of our bill is the cost of research and development etc. How long would it stay at 10 bob a month? I can see that rising every year like the TV licence.

[Gromit]

BT is a private company so should not be financed by the tax payer.

The Government's half baked idea is to connect everyone to the internet whether they want it or not. The whole idea is daft, and should be strangled at birth.

[Julnar]

It seems like another way for a private company to milk the public, regardless of whether they want internet access or not. As someone has previously mentioned, don't present bills incorporate a charge for research and development projects?

[birdie1971]

Like Geezer, I fear that if this 'tax' is introduced it will never go away and will increase year on year.

Income Tax was introduced by William Pitt the Younger in 1799 to help finance Britain's war with the French forces under Napoleon. It was announced in 1798 and was 'sold' to the public as being a temporary tax which would cease to exist once the war was over.

That Napoleon � he's a tenacious little b*gger isn't he?