Nobody likes new taxes, so naturally the initial reaction to the 50p per month levy on line-rental to help pay for the future of the UK's broadband infrastructure is not a particularly positive one.But is that a fair conclusion in this case?

In today's broadband landscape the vast majority of broadband ISP's are doing little more than reselling BT Wholesale's ADSL package; there is very little investment or opportunity for product differentiation. Lots of brand choice but all the cakes are the same inside.

Those that are investing by unbundling telephone exchanges with their own ADSL equipment are typically doing it in the same select few exchanges where they can expect strong competition not only from other unbundlers but also from Virgin's cable broadband since the exchanges they pick are same deeply urban areas. An ISP investing in their own DSLAMs is likely to expect to achieve only a small percentage of a highly contested market.

In both cases, the market has largely opted to compete on price alone. As a result customer prices have continually fallen and the margins necessary to re-invest in the future have been increasingly eroded. The market opted for a path that can only sustain small incremental changes to services, so the kind of major infrastructure investment programme being seen in countries like The Netherlands is simply out of the question in the UK.

The only way that it will be possible to generate the funds to invest in true next generation broadband will be if the cycle of ever decreasing revenues can be broken; and if the market's not going to do, who will?

So, while nobody likes new taxes, this one was probably inevitable. Lets hope the market learns a lesson from this.

But will it make a difference?

On the face of it the levy isn't going to raise much to invest in the future of broadband - certainly not matching the investments of countries like South Korea or Australia - but that's not to say it won't make a difference.

Between 2010 and 2016 the levy is expected to raise around £900m - CBN's own modelling suggests that such a sum, when invested alongside community and commercial funds is likely to be sufficient to make true next generation services available to almost any community in the UK.

Note the word "invested"; there is no reason why the public shouldn't see a return on their 50pin the medium to long term, with the funds invested in sustainable projects.There is no reason for the levy funds to be given away as a subsidy to what ought to be sustainable businesses.

BUT such an approach is new to the UK telecoms markets. Its going to require existing network builders to join forces with communities to create the future, using the levy money to fill the investment gap. Work CBN has done work with, amongst others, the East of England Development Agency which shows that such models are becoming established in European broadband programmes, and have been used successfully in the UK in the development of wind farms.So why not UK broadband?

So perhaps all it really needs for widespread next generation broadband to take hold in the UK is for network builders to think outside their box, and take a peek inside a few new ones.

The levy removes some of the reasons for not investing in true NGA, learning from the imagination of other sectors and countries removes the rest.