[noel43]

Originally Posted by Chris

I think you guess wrongly. The idea of a levy like this is to ensure a minimum level of service is available to everyone, regardless of the current availability of the service or how they currently use it. Providing that service is expensive - so expensive that it is not practical to force only those whose line needs upgrade work to pay for it. In the same way as everyone pays for schools, hospitals, roads and the BBC through a variety of taxes, licences and levies, regardless of whether they use those services or not, everyone will shoulder the cost of Britain's broadband upgrades.

edit

Look at it another way: if you were exempt because you're already on a super-fast cable network, wouldn't all those who already have fast ADSL also be exempt?

I.E. Another TV tax (sort of).