Burstein spills the beans on Carter's broadband giveaway

Dave states re the stimulus-free giveaways in the UK:

"Britain [is] headed down a similar path of giving the money to the companies without getting much additional buildout and few jobs. There's a lot of window dressing like Britain's 2 megabits to everyone but when I run the numbers BT is demanding rate increases, toll booths and subsidy far greater than the cost of serving the customers with $200 repeaters. I'm not sure the new Minister, Stephen Carter, realizes the broadband in his "Digital Britain" plan is essentially a BT bailout. That may be the right policy - BT lost a $B+ on Global Services, and has a pension deficit so large they are afraid to calculate it under some return assumptions."

I think Carter is cynical enuogh that he knows its both a BT and a mobile bailout, at the expense of the end-user.