In a move that will surprise absolutely nobody. The new UK coalition government, which is made up of Conservative and Liberal Democrat political party members, has officially adopted the Tory solution to deploying superfast next generation fibre optic broadband services around the country.

Sadly anybody hoping for details will be disappointed. The finalised coalition pledge (published today) is softer on detail than a fluffy white rabbits bottom. It confirms that the government will use part of the BBC's TV Licence fee to fund the project, albeit assuming that the private sector has failed to get the job done by around 2012.


We note from past comments that the Conservative's want BT and other infrastructure providers to open access into their underground cable ducts. However some ISPs already fear that BT and others would simply peg the costs too high and thus outweigh any potential benefits.

The BBC Licence fee's Digital Switchover budget (3.5%) is worth around £130m per year, which might not be enough. The Conservatives had originally pledged to fund a rollout of 100Mbps capable services "across most of the population" by 2017. Unfortunately we still do not know what "most" means.

As it stands the cost of deploying fibre optic lines for smaller independent ISPs, especially in remote and rural areas, is simply too high. A better way to tackle the problem would be to reduce or even cut the Valuation Office Agency's (VOA) tax on active fibre lines (Fibre Tax). The Conservatives had promised a review of this but we've yet to see any further movement.


Elsewhere there is once again no mention of the LibDem's pledge to repeal the controversial Digital Economy Act (2010). The final coalition agreement effectively amalgamates both manifestos, so this could be taken as a sign that concerns over the act have been sidelined.