It has been reported that public revenue from the BBC's license fee will be used to pay for broadband.

The Government has outlined its first official coalition plan giving details of the deal struck between the Tories and the Lib Dems.

The coalition has confirmed that the new Minister of Broadband will be Ed Vaizey. He will oversee the implementation of the Government's digital economy plans. He even suggested that BBC 6 Music, the digital radio channel facing the axe, should be saved

Last year, the Conservatives had failed to win a parliamentary vote to freeze the license fee temporarily but they failed at that time. Now they are in office, Vaizey said there are no plans to block an annual increase by £3 next April and by a similar amount in 2012.

The idea to use parts of the license fee to fund services, particularly in rural areas, was outlined in the Tory manifesto.

A "broadband tax" of 50p per month to pay for next generation services was proposed by previous Government.

The coalition also wants to ensure that BT and other infrastructure providers allow the use of their assets to deliver such broadband, and they will seek to introduce superfast broadband across the country" in both urban and rural areas.

The Government revealed that it will pump the BBC for cash instead, saying, "If necessary, we will consider using the part of the TV license fee that is supporting the digital switch over to fund broadband in areas that the market alone will not reach”.