Five Ways to Avoid the Broadband Tax
March 1st, 2010 |
The proposed broadband tax which aims to create money to pay for high speed broadband connections is likely to impact on low income families in the UK. The broadband tax is a fixed tax so will have a greater affect on poorer households than richer ones. However, there are a number of way to avoid the broadband tax.
First, low income families on social phone tariffs will be exempt from the broadband tax since it will cost families 50p a month to pay for the ‘next generation broadband’ network. Only 850,000 out of a possible 4 million UK households are currently benefiting from the discount available to them and the communications consumer panel has told the government that they should be doing more to inform people of this.
Although the 50p tax will be used to fund the next information superhighway the consumer panel group is concerned that poorer families will end up paying for taxes they may be exempt from. Elderly customers without broadband but with a landline could be unaware of the exemption even if they have switched to a social phone tariff like BT Basic. Although a large proportion of the elderly have a fixed landline nearly a third of them do not have broadband and 50p a month can seem like a significant investment especially in something which they are unlikely to benefit from.
Second, low income consumers could attempt to take a payment holiday. For example, TalkTalk customers can keep their connections for 6 months if you have been with them for a minimum of 6 months. This means you will be able to remain connected and surf the internet, access banking and look for jobs. Broadband will be free so although you will be charged for line rental (and presumably the broadband tax)customers would save on their broadband deals overall.
The third point for consumers to bear in mind is that they can simply get the cheapest broadband, which will offset the broadband tax. Some providers have taken advantage of something known as ‘GEO location’ which prices the different exchanges dependant on activity which means lower charges for them. If they pass these onto the customers have done then it will mean extremely affordable broadband packages.
A forth idea is to take advantage of short contract broadband which can be stopped if it becomes too expensive. Quality broadband at affordable prices can be obtained via BE who offer a wide array of different packages and the beauty being that they all come with easy to end contracts ranging from 3 months notice to 1 months notice by means of a furhter payment of 40 GBP. Even the lowest cost line on a 12 month contract can be terminated after 1 month.
Finally, consumers could switch to mobile broadband. This doesn’t require line rental so they’ll also escape the broadband tax!
David Swan is a staff writer for the price comparison, news and reviews site ChooseIsp which is focused on broadband deals. The site also has tools to help compare the UK’s cheapest broadband and phone deals.
