http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.c ... id=120522&

I wouldn't say the tax is guaranteed to happen, especially since:

why are we going to be taxed on any broadband upgrade when all the infrastructure for that BB service is going to be run by the private sector
so the taxpayer pays for the upgrade then the taxpayer has to pay the private sector for the use of that upgrade after we 'the taxpayer' have paid for it to be upgraded …

Wasn't it back in the seventies when BT had the option of upgrading the whole country to fibre optic to future proof it, but chose to stick with copper instead?

BT wanted to put fibre in, but the government wouldn't let them. Maggy usually gets the blame for that one.

However, I'd like to point out that where fibre was installed in new towns such as Milton Keynes, it prevented the roll out of ADSL until they could replace it with copper...