Phone lines to cost 50p more per month

The government has called for a 50p per month levy to be imposed on all landline connections in the UK in order to build up a fund to provide super-fast broadband to the third of homes it says would be left out of reach by market forces alone.

While announcing the final Digital Britain report today in the House of Commons, culture secretary Ben Bradshaw revealed that the Next Generation Fund supplement would be imposed on all eligible fixed lines in the UK.

It is estimated that this will generate around £150 million to £175 million each year to go towards funding the government's pledge to provide broadband of a minimum speed of 2Mbps per second for all UK households by 2012.

The report said that the levy is a "fair and sensible national investment to ensure that the overwhelming majority of the country can get access to next generation broadband".

It is suggested that fixed line and cable operators will collect the charge and then pass it on to Ofcom to be placed in a Consolidated Fund.

However, the government also indicated that low income households on social telephony schemes would be exempt from the charge.