5 ms·

Why does that matter?

• tptacek 3y ago
  Because property taxes are a predictable, fixed fee, and ISP fees are usage taxes applied per-customer. Let's make this imaginary restaurant more fun: not only is it required to charge a per-seating fee, but it's not the same fee for each customer. Instead, they have to inquire about the residential address of each guest, and compute a locality-specific seating fee.
  • woobar 3y ago
    Isn't fee based on location of where the service is provided? My ISP at the rental property doesn't care about my residential address. They only care about the address where their service is consumed. You can stop worrying about that restaurant, they will charge same fee all their customers as long as they don't deliver.
    • tptacek 3y ago
      This is about labeling requirements at the point of sale, not about about the details of your bill, which already list these fees.
      • woobar 3y ago
        Are you saying that ISPs already have all this information and there is no problem for them to calculate these (checking the thread...) "unpredictable" fees?
      • lokar 3y ago
        They are allowed to list the maximum total price
        • tptacek 3y ago
          No, in their objection they're specifically asking as an alternative to be allowed to do that.
          • lokar 3y ago
            They want to continue to spring it on you at the last step of signup
    • tekknik 3y ago
      This is not necessarily true for all businesses in all locals. For instance if you buy a car in CA, they charge sales tax based on your home address, so two people could in fact buy the same product at the same dealer and pay different prices
  • ryandrake 3y ago
    This imaginary restaurant could just pay all these fees itself as a cost of doing business and transparently charge a slightly higher whole number to the average customer.
    • tptacek 3y ago
      No, it can't!
      • ryandrake 3y ago
        Why not? If my bill looks like this: $50 Steak Meal $10.54 Municipal We Hate You tax $5.87 Local ditch digging tax $2.15 State paperwork shredding tax $0.04 Federal fuck you tax Why can't instead the restaurant just write on the menu: $70 Steak ($50 + taxes and fees) ...and eat the costs itself? It's entirely within the businesses' power to do this. They choose not to.
        • tptacek 3y ago
          Sorry, I thought you were implying that ISPs could opt instead to pay some lump sum to the various governments charging these fees, and not break them out per customer. They can't do that. Nor can they charge "$70 steak ($50 + taxes and fees)" --- that's what they want to do. It's the FCC that's saying the bill has to look the way you're complaining about.
          • BHSPitMonkey 3y ago
            Per the article, the FCC says ISPs are free to eat those costs behind the scenes and charge customers of the same plan the same flat rate (thus avoiding the need to itemize any taxes). The FCC is essentially creating an incentive structure that favors simplicity for consumers (possibly at the cost of making customers in low-tax areas pay a little more while those in high-tax areas pay a little less).
            • tptacek 3y ago
  • wildrhythms 3y ago
    >ISP fees are usage taxes applied per-customer Can you please explain what you meant by this?