An extra amount of six pounds per year will be imposed by way of tax by the UK government to fund its digital plans. The recent hints from treasury minister Stephen Timms that the tax plan has been abandoned thus appear to be anything but true.

Known as stealth tax, the additional 50p every month collected from fixed phone line users, which covers almost every household in the UK, will be used to subsidize the costs to be borne by the government for Next Generation Access (NGA). This method of funding was suggested for the first time in the Digital Britain report. It has however been debated upon till date in the Digital Britain Forum.

Around £150-£175 million will be collected annually by the government in order to provide internet access to everyone in the country. The government through this project wishes to end the rift between users and non-users of the internet across the country and it appears we all might have the need for 3g mobile broadband access sooner than we may have expected.

Overall, there appears to be an agreement among critics that the digital goal fixed by the government is not sufficiently progressive. Moreover, it is alleged that the government is not doing all it can to fulfil its aim. However, the authorities give the impression that they are determined to utilize ‘broadband tax‘ and the money from users of fixed lines for taking their plans forward.