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Major broadband ISPs including BT, VodafoneThree and charities have joined forces under the Connection Project again to call on the UK government to help ensure that “no one is priced out of essential connectivity“. The call states that even today’s competitive prices and existing social tariffs for those on state benefits “cannot meet everyone’s needs“.
So far, the market regulator, Ofcom, has already been reasonably successful at encouraging quite a lot of broadband providers, as well as a few mobile operators, to offer cheaper Social Tariffs to those on certain state benefits. Commercial companies have typically shouldered the burden for delivering this and today’s joint statement appears to be hankering for the government to take on more responsibility.
The statement highlights new research from Professor Simeon Yates of the University of Liverpool, which finds that, despite the above, some 400,000 households offline today “would be unable to afford even the cheapest social tariff“. And many more families already struggle to pay for broadband alongside the rising cost of food, heating and other essentials.