Broadband for everyone - but at what cost?

The BBC Technology Team have reported that Chancellor Alistair Darling has announced super-fast broadband for the majority of homes by 2017, funded by a £6 annual tax on landline phones.

The Conservatives have vowed to scrap the tax if they win the next election.

Fast net services will create "hundreds of thousands" of new jobs while putting services online will lower the cost of public spending, the chancellor said.

He also promised more tax breaks for the UK's computer games industry.

"The UK has the potential to be a digital world leader. It needs high-speed broadband for rural areas as well as urban, it must not be limited to the well-off," the chancellor said in his budget speech.

The broadband tax has proved controversial. The proposal is to charge people with fixed lines 50p a month to help fund super-fast broadband, although it is not clear if those who use cable services will be included.

It has been branded unfair by an all-party group of MPs who say that most people who pay it won't reap the benefits.

It is aimed at the so-called final third of the country that is unlikely to be included in commercial plans to roll out expensive fibre optic services.

Election issue

Prime minister Gordon Brown signalled how seriously the government is talking its digital commitments with a speech earlier this week in which he described high-speed web access as "the electricity of the digital age".

Broadband is increasingly becoming a hot election issue with some key differences between the parties.

The Conservatives believe that government intervention to ensure super-fast broadband reaches the whole country is not yet necessary.

It favours leaving the roll out of such services to the industry, although it would consider government assistance in 2012, when funds are freed up by the digital switchover.

Andrew Ferguson, editor of broadband news site ThinkBroadband said the broadband tax was crucial if fast net services were to be universal.

"Any tax increases are always unpopular, but to some extent if we want to stimulate telcos to invest more, we, the nation, perhaps need to do something to encourage them. With the banks we all have effectively paid a lot more towards each one to keep them going," he said.

The broadband tax is one of the measures in the government's Digital Economy Bill.