The i3 Group (H2O Networks, Fibrecity) has today reiterated its warning about UK government plans to put a 50p +vat per month tax on all fixed phone lines, which aims to help fund the rollout of next generation broadband services to 90% of the country by 2017. i3 fears that the tax could have the opposite affect and actually create a new digital divide by disincentivising investment in superfast connectivity.

i3 is currently using its Fibrecity project to deploy up to 100Mbps fibre optic broadband services ( Fibre-to-the-Home - FTTH ) in the cities of Bournemouth and Dundee, not to mention several smaller projects. They're working towards achieving this by using the regions underground network of sewers to carry the cable. Suffice to say that i3 has a big stake in what happens and they're more than a little worried.


The largest fear is that a sizeable chunk of the fund could end up going straight into the pockets of BT . This could definitely pose a few problems for those building similar and rival infrastructure. Mr Thomas stresses the huge and urgent importance in knowing precisely how the tax's £175m per year Next Generation Fund (NGF) revenues will be spent.


Fibrecity Holdings (i3) is currently committed to connecting 750,000 homes to fibre optic networks around the UK over the next two years. i3 has also proposed an open platform that would make it easy for consumers to select their services and move between different ISPs. The related consultation is expected to run for another 10 weeks and should tackle the issue of fair money distribution.