In 2010 the British Government decided that mobile providers O2, Three, Vodafone and EE weren't paying enough for access to the spectrum they use for connecting our phones with their networks. A price rise was suggested, and now Ofcom has announced how much the networks are going to have to cough up in extra fees.

The current amount paid is about £65million, but this will rise to £200million and is divided up based on how much spectrum each operator is using. The amounts involved are listed in full below:

And, when the government applies higher fees to something, what you basically have is a stealth tax. Mobile operators will, naturally, want to preserve their profits. So the only logical conclusion is that these costs will end up being passed on to consumers.

Even if the mobile companies don't pass on the costs, it will have an impact on the amount they have to spend on upgrading the network, and reaching areas that don't currently have high speed 3G or 4G.

So, to break it down. The government took something that belongs to the nation - namely its RF spectrum - and applied higher fees to it so that the citizens, who pay income tax, tax on their phone bills now will also fund a new stealth tax. You're paying to use something you own, as a citizen. If that doesn't annoy your inner anarchist, nothing will.