• UK £6 phone tax per year to improve broadband
    58 replies, posted
Saw it in the paper yesterday and I couldn't find a thread on it. Link: [url]http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?%A36_phone_tax_to_fund_more_broadband_by_January&in_article_id=742809&in_page_id=34[/url] The general gist of the article is that people would pay 50p a month and that would help to improve broadband in all areas of the UK. But the main fact about the article is that people are complaining about the price. What's wrong with £6 a year?
I don't live in the UK, but if I did and if it really does help to improve broadband speeds I'd gladly pay that, heck in that case I'd gladly pay 100£ a year.
Nothing is, I WANT FAST BROADBAND
50p a month? If you can afford broadband, you can afford that. I think the complaints [b]really[/b] come from how it's [i]certain[/i] they'll boost that price ten-fold in a few years. The greedy bastards. :argh:
I wonder if there will be massive protests about that.
Why are people complaining? This would do wonders for buisness, if south africa did this they'd have better broadband within a few years.
The west is eons behind the east in this sector, if it's a slight tax we need then it's fine with me. If nothing improves then people can complain.
BT's already said that they're not improving phone lines in rural areas.
Pffft, my ISP are wankers! We pay more than enough for 10mb/s speeds but we're only getting about 2mb/s at best. The reason is because we are so far away from our telephone exchange, the one we're linked up to is about 2/3 a mile from our house... The thing that really gets me is that there's one right down the fucking road which has only been installed recently and despite ringing them up to ask to be switched to it, they can't do it. Ridiculous!
What our gov will do is once the broadband is up to scratch they will keep the tax like they always do, far after the reason for the tax has been fixed. And besides, most of the country gets far better than what I get, The way I see it they owe me good internet for all these years of shit connection. Not even my ISP's fault.
Don't mind paying £6 a year, UK broadband sucks pretty bad still.
[QUOTE=decilling;17495494]What our gov will do is once the broadband is up to scratch they will keep the tax like they always do, far after the reason for the tax has been fixed. And besides, most of the country gets far better than what I get, The way I see it they owe me good internet for all these years of shit connection. Not even my ISP's fault.[/QUOTE] They don't owe you anything, complain to your parents and move to some place where the connections better then.
Hell I'd pay 10x that for a noticeable improvement in the UK's broadband infrastructure. Any by noticeable, I mean nationwide Fibre and a backbone capable of supporting sustained 100mbit connections to residential areas.
I'm pretty happy with what I have now, Sky Broadband upto 10mb, I get around 8 due to my distance from the exchange but it's fine, unlimited (I imagine there's a fair use policy as usual but we've never gone over it, and I download quite a bit) and free with our Sky TV Package if I remember, either free or a tenner a month, meh.
[QUOTE=Adrego;17495557]I'm pretty happy with what I have now, Sky Broadband upto 10mb, I get around 8 due to my distance from the exchange but it's fine, unlimited (I imagine there's a fair use policy as usual but we've never gone over it, and I download quite a bit) and free with our Sky TV Package if I remember, either free or a tenner a month, meh.[/QUOTE] Fair usage policy usually lowers your speed a bit during peak times.
I'm in favour of this, and I'm one of the few people on FP who actually pays a broadband bill.
[QUOTE=markg06;17495506]They don't owe you anything, complain to your parents and move to some place where the connections better then.[/QUOTE] They do if he's paying for it. "Up to" wording is utter bullshit and there needs to be more laws concerning it.
[QUOTE=Marler;17495391]Saw it in the paper yesterday and I couldn't find a thread on it. Link: [url]http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?%A36_phone_tax_to_fund_more_broadband_by_January&in_article_id=742809&in_page_id=34[/url] The general gist of the article is that people would pay 50p a month and that would help to improve broadband in all areas of the UK. But the main fact about the article is that people are complaining about the price. What's wrong with £6 a year?[/QUOTE] I think people are complaining that the 50p goes to getting all areas of the UK to at least 2mb speeds. Which i think is silly.
I'd want to see action before I pay £6 a year personally. Its not that people can't afford it, its just local councils around the UK have been promising better broadband for a long time, and even when implimented, lots of residential areas never see any difference.
BT have been laying down fibre optic for years now, when will we see it in action >:(
[QUOTE=Thom12255;17495503]Don't mind paying £6 a year, UK broadband sucks pretty bad still.[/QUOTE] uhh only if youre with some shitty company like talk talk or virgin. BT is the way to go :c00l:
[QUOTE=GeeBee;17496762]uhh only if youre with some shitty company like talk talk or virgin. BT is the way to go :c00l:[/QUOTE] Are you serious? Virgin's fantastic, speed wise, shitty customer support and there's a fair bit of downtime, but other than that, it's great. [editline]06:17PM[/editline] Hey maybe there'll be some people with good connections playing street fighter on the xbox some time in the next 20 years.
I dont have a landline and I have 10mb broadband so I am happy
[QUOTE=GeeBee;17496762]uhh only if youre with some shitty company like talk talk or virgin. BT is the way to go :c00l:[/QUOTE] Hurr hurr, I am with BT and know from experience they are pretty bad but sadly they are the only service out where I live outside of the city.
That's an awesome idea. In Scotland water is paid like this, everyone in the local area pays communally for water, so if you use a lot you pay quite little (though you pay seperately if you are ridiculous with it) and if you use not a lot of water, the bill is negligible anyway since it is paid communally
This is really going to be useful to people in areas where they still only get 1mb broadband due to the location. But yeah, there's not really a reason to complain
I'd gladly pay a few more dollars a month if the southern US could get this treatment.
Why does not the broadband cost go towards making better cables. I thought that paying for broadband includes the infrastructure improvements.
[QUOTE=XSarcYX;17495416]50p a month? If you can afford broadband, you can afford that. [/QUOTE] Actually this 50p per month tax will effect everyone with a phone line, even if they don't use broadband hence this is why some people are complaining. Personally I think it's a excellent idea. [QUOTE=evilking1;17498884]Why does not the broadband cost go towards making better cables. I thought that paying for broadband includes the infrastructure improvements.[/QUOTE] It should seeing how much money they make but they have made little progress in upgrading these old copper cables.
[QUOTE=GeeBee;17496762]uhh only if youre with some shitty company like talk talk or virgin. BT is the way to go :c00l:[/QUOTE] BT are so-so, when you want to join the big boys try BE. (Or virgin 50MB the only decent virgin package)
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