Landline tax!

[Surfer01]

Yet another stealth tax! I don't see why we should be paying for broad band to be installed at some place we have never heard of. My main bitch is that the broadband speed where we are is slow at about 4mb so why shoudl I pay for someoen else to get a better conenction that us and we live within les of a mile to the nearest exchange.

 

Our normal phone bill is about £16 a month if that. We have mobile broadband connection also plus mobile phones so do we really need a land line?

 

What are your thoughts on this?

[postggj]

Not Going Off Topic But Herr Brown Brought In This Tax For Super Broadband Speed

 

Excuse Me

 

The Companies Like Bt Are Plc With Share Holders

 

Why Are They Not Paying For It

 

Why Should We Back Up The Share Holders Who Will Get The Financial Benefit

 

Or Am I Barking Up The Wrong Tree

[Surfer01]

Postggj you probably put it across better than me! Why don't they do a windfall tax on BT like they do on every one else when they need some cash.

[BritBrat]

They should Nationalise Openreach and then I would not mind so much so long as they did not privatise it again later.

 

After all who competes against Openreach?

 

Why should we fund big business, Oh hang on we fund bankers now.

[locutus]

They should Nationalise Openreach and then I would not mind so much so long as they did not privatise it again later.

 

After all who competes against Openreach?

 

Why should we fund big business, Oh hang on we fund bankers now.

My only problem with that is we will probably get our line problems sorted by "the lowest bidder" rather than the best people for the job.

[hightail]

I don't see why we should be paying for broad band to be installed at some place we have never heard of

 

I live in such a place. I pay about 3 times the cheap rate which apparently is available to 80% of households. This new tax is for high speed broadband services which will never be available in my area at a reasonable price. I don't see why I should be taxed like this either. Is anyone happy about it?

[locutus]

I live in such a place. I pay about 3 times the cheap rate which apparently is available to 80% of households. This new tax is for high speed broadband services which will never be available in my area at a reasonable price. I don't see why I should be taxed like this either. Is anyone happy about it?

What is "3 times the cheap rate"? AFAIK broadband suppliers charge a flat rate, the only time this changes is if you are with a supplier that doesn't have their equipment in your exchange, in which case find and switch to a supplier that is in that exchange! Try searching for "samknows broadband checker"

[hightail]

My supplier and others I have checked show a 'from' headline price per month. They claim that this price is available to 80% of households. Those in the other 20% pay more.

Edited December 13, 2009 by hightail
hit return button by mistake

[BritBrat]

My only problem with that is we will probably get our line problems sorted by "the lowest bidder" rather than the best people for the job.

 

 

I never said Privatise it is already that, why should our tax money go to a private company? lets own it if we are going to fund it.

[locutus]

My supplier and others I have checked show a 'from' headline price per month. They claim that this price is available to 80% of households. Those in the other 20% pay more.

As I said, that company has not got their servers in your exchange, so they have to rent BT's server. You will be able to find a cheaper supplier. To a search for "samknows broadband checker" and put your postcode into that... it will tell you other available suppliers and hopefully you can find one cheaper.

 

 

I never said Privatise it is already that, why should our tax money go to a private company? lets own it if we are going to fund it.

BT is a privately owned company, before that it was the GPO that ran it (the general post office). It ran no better then! Honestly I don't believe the government can do a better job running it than BT (that is not meant as praise for BT )

 

 

If I lived much further away from the server I'd be denied service, and I'd regard my under half meg connection enough for myself even though I am a bit of a tech head. I get annoyed if I need a file bigger than 50 meg, but I set them downloads when I go to bed. I'd guess that over 90% of users would be happy enough on a 1 meg broadband connection. Gamers need a fast ping time, not a large bandwidth, and surfing is generally clogged by the web browser and the site upload speed over the users download speed.

 

The people that want faster internet connections are mostly business people, so I think that businesses should be made to pay a premium on their phone lines for the upgrades. The main thing that I think regular people need a fast download speed for is things like BBC I Player and we pay enough TV license fees for them to cough up a good proportion for the upgrades.

 

 

If there was a package that was only £5 per month including line rental for 1/2 meg broadband, I bet 90% of the population would opt for that one!

[BritBrat]

I never said it would be better the point was we would own it.

 

If it is private why should we pay a tax to it?

 

Maybe the government should start a new organisation for the broadband upgrades and the tax would go to that and who knows one day they may be able to compete with openreach.

 

Then what ever they upgrade/install openreach would pay to use it.

Edited December 14, 2009 by BritBrat