Provider say stop the tax on fibre broadband

A broadband group that is responsible for a major UK high-speed fibre broadband project has recommended that the taxation policy from the government on fibre broadband should be reviewed in order to make it more viable for company to make investments in fibre broadband projects in the future.

According to a major provider of broadband services in the UK, the government should look at the taxation policy it currently employs in relation to the building of fibre-optic broadband networks.

The i3 Group have said that any vision of super-fast next generation broadband services in the UK could be seriously held back by these tax demands from the government.

The warnings have come from the i3 Group, the company that is responsible for the Fibrecity project, which has provided the city of Bournemouth with high-speed 100Mbps fibre-optic broadband access, saying that unless the government drops the current levels of taxation of will be reconsidering any future plans that it may have.

If the levels of taxation are set too high the group fears that any companies that were considering making any kind of substantial investment would be put off by this factor.

This issue is likely to be picked up by an increasing number of companies and providers as more and more areas of the country looks towards implementing fibre-optic broadband services in localised areas such as London, Manchester and a number of the more rural communities.

The chief executive and founder of the i3 group, Elfred Thomas said ‘While not entirely mutually exclusive, the twin aims of faster connectivity – in order to support national business and educational needs – and revenue raising from fibre taxation, work in opposition to each other. The potential damage to the timely roll out of a national fibre network cannot be under estimated.’