Broadband crimes

Try explaining to an octogenarian in east London why she should pay for her countryside-dwelling grandson to receive broadband, when she has no interest in the service herself. UK communications minister Lord Carter is unlikely to do that, especially as it has just been revealed that he will shortly stand down from his position, but he does expect her to stump up the cash.

Indeed, the most criminal aspect of his new Digital Britain report, published today, was its recommendation that all fixed-line phone users be required to pay another £6 a year to fund the deployment of new broadband technology. The aim is to ensure that all households in the UK can receive a broadband service of at least 2Mbps by 2012.

While £6 a year is unlikely to cause much pain for most households, the principle is outrageous. A recent Ofcom survey indicated that 13% of UK residents have no interest in receiving broadband whatsoever. And yet those with ordinary phone lines will be expected to give money to privately owned companies – in which they have no stake – so that others can receive a service. What’s more, that money will be wasted if few new customers sign up, as seems likely.

The recommendations are also highly discriminatory. Households that use only mobile phones and a mobile-broadband service from the likes of Vodafone or T-Mobile, and no fixed-line services, will not have to cough up the 50p a month. Those who use no communications technology other than BT’s plain old telephony service will, even though many are worse off and attribute less importance to high-tech services than their mobile-only peers.

Despite these obvious anomalies and injustices, market watchers are busy complaining about Lord Carter’s ‘poverty of ambition’, and trying to explain why 2Mbps per household isn’t good enough. Some are even arguing that high-speed broadband is as important a utility as electricity or water. Seems it’s not only the bonus-hungry bankers who’ve lost touch with reality.