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Olivia Garfield, director of strategy and portfolio for the BT group, expressed her misgivings about the government’s new proposal of levying a tax of 50p to recover the costs incurred on the roll out of fibre optic broadband throughout the remaining 34% of the country. She was addressing a briefing at BT’s London headquarters.

Garfield said that a target figure of about 20% i.e. going from 64% to about 80-85% was manageable but going the whole hog will end up sinking the whole project. She also denied that the decision had anything to do with BT, saying that they weren’t even asked for their opinion, as the provider got to know about the broadband tax proposal only about 20 minutes before the official Digital Britain report was release. For an insight into the various ISP’s, take look at a dedicated broadband comparison website, for the latest broadband news.

The issue seems to be hanging in the balance, as there is an apparent lack of details for the providers to formulate their next step. That is one of the reasons why BT has decided to sit back and wait for Ofcom to decide on the allocation of money between BT and Virgin Media. The money to be distributed has to come from Next Generation Funds.

A parliamentary investigation into Next Generation Access is about to take place after it was confirmed last week. The investigation will look into all aspects of Lord Carter’s report including the latest and controversial tax proposal. The investigation team will also be looking into the viability of other plans proposed in the report.