[科技前沿]英國電信公司稱手機使用者應該支付寬帶稅

來源：The Guardian 編輯：Vicki

英國電信公司近日向政府提出向移動電話用戶每年徵收6英鎊的稅。上個月，通訊部長), Lord Carter在其數碼英國報告中提出向固定電話使用者每個月徵收50英鎊的稅，以保證在2017年之前英國90%以上的住戶都可以享用超快的網速。但是該項提案有可能暫時無法通過，因爲需要通過一項新的法案。最早也要到明年3月份纔可以，那個時候大家的關注點都在大選上。

Mobile phone users should share the pain of broadband tax, says BT

BT has called for the government's proposed £6-a-year broadband tax to be extended to mobile phone users in a move that could reduce the size of the tax.

In his Digital Britain report last month, the communications minister(通訊部長), Lord Carter, proposed a 50p-a-month levy（徵稅） on every fixed-line phone to meet the bill for getting the next generation of super-fast broadband networks to 90% of UK households by 2017.

But it is not only fixed-line companies that would be able to bid for some of the estimated £1.5bn that would be raised by the tax. Mobile phone operators would also be able to use the money. As a result, BT's director of industry policy and regulation（英國電信產業政策和規章主任）, Emma Gilthorpe, said yesterday that if mobile, wireless-based operators did go through that bid process then "the government should consider the opportunity to widen the base for the tax and possibly reduce the amount that each individual household pays".

BT reckons （認爲）it is incongruous（不一致的） that the levy only applies to fixed-line phones even though mobile phone companies and other businesses that want to use wireless solutions can bid for the cash for next-generation networks.

Carter proposed the new broadband tax because there is little chance of the market being able to make an economic case for pushing fibre-optic（光纖） networks and other super-fast broadband services beyond about 60% of the population. With the Treasury unwilling to make any money available from general taxation（稅收）, the telephone levy aims to plug the funding gap.

BT has already announced plans to invest £1.5bn over the next three years on a super-fast network but it will only reach four of every 10 homes. Virgin Media, meanwhile, is already offering broadband at 50Mb a second – the sort of speed expected from next-generation networks – but it covers only about half of the country.

Gilthorpe's comments, at a Westminster Media Forum debate on Digital Britain, came as BT announced that it is speeding up the rollout（首次展示） of its next-generation network.

Having originally planned to have about half a million homes connected by next March, it yesterday said it would have 1.5m homes connected by next summer. By the end of this summer Virgin Media will have completed its next-generation network plan, putting its 50Mb a second service within reach of 12.5m homes.

But there are fears within the industry that Carter's broadband tax could fail as it would require a new finance bill, which is unlikely to appear before next March. By then the government will be focused on a forthcoming general election（即將到來的大選） and a new tax on consumers is unlikely to be a vote-winner.

Keke View：英國是世界上較早實行普選制的國家，其選舉制度不僅對英國自身的民主政治體系具有十分重要的意義，而且對美國等西方國家民主政治體系也具有十分廣泛而深遠的影響。在英國, 君主(monarch)以及下議院（又稱平民院）和上議院（又稱貴族院）兩院(House of Commons and House of Lords)是法定的三大立法主體。當然君王的立法地位只是流於形式，而兩院中的下議院又具有主導地位。