Quote:
Originally Posted by yorkshireborn
if BT was a national company still owned by the goverment then i don't think id be as worried but its not its private company and all i can see is BT getting 100 of 1000s new customers through new upgraded lines that have been partly paid for from cable money and Virgin getting screwed (pardon the pun).
now if Virgin was to get a share of this money to upgrade and lay new cable then im all for it.
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This money isn't to be used for general network-wide upgrades, so Virgin is not going to lose out due to BT getting all of it.
The issue here is the minimum level of universal service we as a nation can expect to get from the fixed-line telephone network operated by the former State monopoly, British Telecom. The now-privatized BT plc, having inherited an infrastructure built largely at the taxpayers' expense, has in return to provide a fixed line to anyone who wants one (I mean everyone, with few, if any exceptions), and that line has to be usable for both voice and data. The problem is, the current minimum acceptable data speed that BT is obliged to provide is, IIRC, a mere 28.8kbps. It's reasonably easy to do that, but now the Government wants to raise the minimum service level to 2mbps. That is impossible to achieve without serious investment in technology in the very places where it will be impossible to make a financial return on it (such as on my line, which is 4 miles from a rural exchange that has fewer than 200 properties connected to it). And BT is no longer a State monopoly whose losses simply get swallowed up in the chancellor's next budget report. It's a plc, and is obliged to make a profit.
The money that is raised with this levy will be spent on bringing the minimum data speed up to 2 meg on those lines that cannot already support it. In essence, a lot of money being spent in a few poorly-served, mostly rural locations around the UK.
Your cash is going to upgrade
my phone line. That may sound unfair, but it is simply what happens with every penny of tax you pay. It is spent where and when it's needed, and it is not needed anywhere on the Virgin network, as that network is already capable of far in excess of 2 meg.