DIGITAL BRITAIN: THE REPORT. A 50p (€0.59) per month levy is to be imposed on all fixed copper telephone lines to fund the deployment of ‘next generation’ broadband to the ‘final third’ of homes and small businesses.
The Digital Britain report, published today, says the levy will act as a subsidy to bring the cost of rural broadband to the same levels of the more commercially economic parts of the market. The management of the fund will be subject to a tender process.
Ofcom is to be given “backstop powers” to place additional conditions on ISPs aimed at reducing copyright infringement. The report lists specific measures including; Blocking (Site, IP, URL); Protocol blocking; Port blocking; Bandwidth capping (capping the speed of a subscriber’s Internet connection and/or capping the volume of data traffic.
Despite pressure from the rights holders, ISPs have been reluctant to act as the internet police. But the government believes online piracy to be a civil form of theft and is looking for its action to result in a reduction of between 70% and 80%.
Further Information
