£6 broadband levy may be trebled for homes with multiple lines

ljt · 10 Dec 2009 at 13:11

photoshop said:
Ye right! Do you believe that?

I know so. I work for openreach and we are currently bidding for contracts to put extra cable in, it doesn't mean we will get them though.

SiriusB · 10 Dec 2009 at 13:13

Gibbs said:
this is crazy tbh, i pay £30 p/m to get my bb which isn't even running at its full advertised speed.

Now you want to change me more so you can upgrade YOUR product.
nuts it is, freaking nuts

Your service will say "up to". So yes, you're getting exactly what you pay for, unless they guarantee a minimum speed - which i highly doubt.

Vonhelmet · 10 Dec 2009 at 13:17

hsp70 said:
what really grinds my gears is how on earth can they charge VAT on a tax ?! It's utterly ridiculous.

If I can get my hands on the draft legislation, I'll take a look at this, as I'm not yet seeing any evidence that this tax will be VATable.

Tefal · 10 Dec 2009 at 13:50

vonhelmet said:
If I can get my hands on the draft legislation, I'll take a look at this, as I'm not yet seeing any evidence that this tax will be VATable.

The plans, drawn up by Revenue & Customs, show that ministers will tax households with more than one phone line — of which there are more than 1.7 million — for each line they rent, and will also levy VAT on the charge.

Says in the op :confused:

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article6932537.ece

or are they talking about adding vat to the line cost or something ?

Vonhelmet · 10 Dec 2009 at 13:58

Tefal said:
Says in the op

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article6932537.ece

or are they talking about adding vat to the line cost or something ?

I'd rather see the legislation, than see what the Times have to say about it.

Abraham · 10 Dec 2009 at 14:05

vonhelmet said:
I'd rather see the legislation, than see what the Times have to say about it.

Everything so far has said that there will be VAT charged on the levy, however I'm not sure it's been made clear whether this will be on top of or included in the stated amount.

Vonhelmet · 10 Dec 2009 at 14:40

Abraham said:
Everything so far has said that there will be VAT charged on the levy, however I'm not sure it's been made clear whether this will be on top of or included in the stated amount.

Can you provide a government source for that? That's all I'm after.

NathanE · 10 Dec 2009 at 15:03

I see the 100% superfast broadband coverage claim has already been eroded. They're now saying 90%. (Don't we have that already? :confused:

)

Moreover, they've secretly increased the time range for this "programme" from 2012 to 2017 !!!

antijoke · 10 Dec 2009 at 15:04

Thank lord this will never come into effect. *

*vote depending

NathanE · 10 Dec 2009 at 15:12

anticonscience said:
Thank lord this will never come into effect. *

*vote depending

I wouldn't be so sure. The public don't seem to be shouting loudly about it enough. To such an extent that I wouldn't even rule out the Tories scrapping these plans.

Either way, we've got to pay back our borrowing some how. So if we don't let them take it this way then they will take it another... such as petrol, road tax or NI...

Glaucus · 10 Dec 2009 at 15:13

NathanE said:
Either way, we've got to pay back our borrowing some how.

Upgrading the infrastructure will be free then :confused:

antijoke · 10 Dec 2009 at 15:13

Surely Cameron wouldn't back down on this? That would be very damaging to his credibility.

Jez · 10 Dec 2009 at 15:14

hsp70 said:
what really grinds my gears is how on earth can they charge VAT on a tax ?! It's utterly ridiculous.

Been doing this for years on other goods.

NathanE · 10 Dec 2009 at 15:20

AcidHell2 said:
Upgrading the infrastructure will be free then

No. There is no infrastructure upgrade. The government doesn't even own any copper or fibre optics in the UK anymore. They are lying.

There is not even any separated "Superfast Broadband Initiative" bank account where the funds can be deposited so they don't get 'accidently' spent on say bailing out banks.

The grand total we will get out of this is a "Broadband Initiatives Minister" whose sole job responsibility is to just phone up BT every day and pester them to roll out an ADSL DSLAM to some remote village in upper Scotland. And he will work from home and claim all these phone calls on expenses and... well actually, no.. he will just claim his entire life on expenses and his salary will go straight into a savings account.

EdGey · 10 Dec 2009 at 15:32

my line is absolutely disgraceful.

Im talking 180kb/s max dl speed, and they want more!

NathanE · 10 Dec 2009 at 15:39

EdGey said:
my line is absolutely disgraceful.

Im talking 180kb/s max dl speed, and they want more!

Unfortunately your line is only ~40KB/sec off from being classed as "Superfast Broadband".

mattheman · 10 Dec 2009 at 16:01

markyp23 said:
No. Tax everyone to bring some semblance of equality to the broadband market. I think it's fair, and I'm in a 50Mb Virgin area and getting 20Mbps on ADSL2.

Its not my fault people choose to live where they choose, infact renting or buying a home in teh sticks is a lot cheaper, if the cost of BB to those areas is more then so be it, let the people in the sticks pay a higher price.
If they dont like it they can always move.

Jez · 10 Dec 2009 at 16:40

A rather one-sided view there, mattheman.

EdGey · 10 Dec 2009 at 18:09

NathanE said:
Unfortunately your line is only ~40KB/sec off from being classed as "Superfast Broadband".

Glaucus · 10 Dec 2009 at 18:12

NathanE said:
No. There is no infrastructure upgrade. The government doesn't even own any copper or fibre optics in the UK anymore. They are lying.
.

just because they don't own it doesn't mean they don't spend money on it.

NathanE said:
There is not even any separated "Superfast Broadband Initiative" bank account where the funds can be deposited so they don't get 'accidently' spent on say bailing out banks.

.

There isn't with any tax. But they are setting money aside. This is something UK needs and the government knows his. he amount of business and education done on-line is massive and is growing. If we want to keep up with other countrys and not lose more industry his has to be done.

there job will be to give money and grants to BT to help speed up roll out. Cheap uncapped broadband can not continue. The cost in the infrastructure is huge. With services like I player if a lot of people started using it tomorrow the grid would crash, it is not designed for the modern world and needs updating. either you have a tax and heavy government supervision (like the railway) or we fall behind. imagine if BT suddenly added money on to pay for infrastructure everyone would move to a different provider. BT has to let other companys on he grid at a set price.