°•●○ [Digital Media report] ○●•°

°•●○ [Digital Media report] ○●•°

(Ben Bradshaw: outlined Digital Britain proposals in Parliament)

• The government announced in it's Digital Britain report that all fixed-line telephone users will pay £6 a year to fund the rollout of fast broadband connection across the country.


• A monthly levy of 50p on every copper telephone line will help pay for next-generation broadband for 90% of the population.


• The government wanted to break the BBC's monopoly on the license fee and use the £200m "digital switchover surplus" from the license fee to help provide universal access to broadband before the next generation service is built.


• The government wants everyone to be able to receive broadband of at least 2Mbps by 2012 as it puts more public services online. The £6-a-year levy will rise between £150m and £175m a year to extend next-generation broadband .


• ITV has said it will pull out of providing regional news because it can no longer afford to fund it – but will continue to provide airtime for other media organisations to supply replacement programming.


• Bradshaw claimed that illegal sharefiling is a theft and punishments for repeat offenders could be to have the speed of their broadband connection reduced.


• The Conservative party labelled the report as "digital dithering from a dated government".