The UK government’s plan to impose a 50p tax on all fixed telephone lines in the country towards funding the rollout of future broadband services, does not has consumer support according to ISPreview’s survey of over 560 respondents.

As many as 74.3% consumers do not support the Next Gen Broadband Tax proposed by the government.

The government’s pan include a 50p +vat per month tax ('Next Generation Fund') on all fixed phone lines. Revenue from the NGF (estimated to be £175m per year) would be used to support the rollout of next generation broadband services to 90% of the country by 2017, with a focus on less profitable areas, such as rural locations.

Consumers are however open to other solutions to fund the project. 31.7% of consumers are open to the Conservative party’s plan to use part of the BBC’s existing TV licence fee while 24.2% support the idea of cutting the controversial Fibre Tax which proposes to tax the rateable value of the basic next generation infrastructure.

23.7% support the idea of investment from private sector funding the project.

"What comes out clearest is how the majority of respondents agree that next generation broadband will need some sort of support and cannot merely be left to the private sector, which would result in many rural areas being left without access to superfast broadband," comments ISPreview.co.uk's Editor and Founder, Mark Jackson.

"The most important point to remember about future broadband is not the headline (advertised) speed but its underlying infrastructure improvements. Today most of the country is still served by dated and slow copper cables, which is why average UK speeds are often closer to 4Mbps (Ofcom's April 2009 data) than the dizzy heights of 'up to' 20-24Mbps as advertised by ISPs using existing technologies (e.g. ADSL2+)," concludes Jackson.