In February Commsworld reported that the government was to impose a broadband tax costing £6 per year, but a complete u-turn means the tax will no longer stand.

The broadband tax has been scrapped in the last-minute scramble to rush key legislation through before Parliament is dissolved next week.

The tax was a key part of Labour's strategy to ensure all parts of the country get super-fast broadband.

The 50p-a-month broadband tax would have been applied to all households with a landline telephone. It is estimated that it would have raised about £170m a year to help fund broadband roll-out.

It was aimed at the final third of the country where experts say it would be too expensive for commercial players such as BT and Virgin Media to roll out fibre services.

But the tax proved controversial and the Conservatives had vowed to scrap it if it had become law and they had won the election. If funding is needed to roll broadband out to rural areas, the Conservatives plans to use some of the TV license fee set aside for digital switch-over. That would not be available until 2012.

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