Carter report surprises his own advisers

The Digital Britain proposal to impose a £6 annual levy on every telephone land line in the UK to pay for superfast broadband came as a complete surprise last month – even to members of the steering group advising Lord Carter on the report, apparently. One of the eleven-strong panel told Monkey: "It was never discussed in any of the steering group meetings. Very early on, as we started our report last year, we were specifically warned off suggesting any increase in taxes, because that would be politically unacceptable. Then, to justify the £6 levy, Stephen came up with this slightly lame excuse for it, that the cost of broadband had gone down in recent years. So what?" And it's not just Carter who is disappointed with the reception the white paper has received. "We were told it was going to be a seminal piece of work on what the country needed. But it has dodged a lot of issues and then said the BBC should fund other people's programmes, which is quite different from assisting digital switchover. Shabby. Stephen's decision to bale out has, in execution terms, cut the ground from under the report's feet. It will be cut to shreds." Not exactly a, um... ringing endorsement, then.