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"it's money local governments are taxing from their residents, piggybacking on the ISP billing system." I'm sympathetic to the point, and this feels like there
by ckozlowski 3y ago
"it's money local governments are taxing from their residents, piggybacking on the ISP billing system."
I'm sympathetic to the point, and this feels like there's area for compromise here. Something along the lines of "We'll gladly support this change if local governments stop hiding taxes behind us."
I have to believe the NCTA made this issue clear; I wonder then if the FCC noticed, and if so, why there isn't a similar directive levied at municipalities to stop this practice?
To be clear, I fully support forcing ISPs to be transparent, period. But that is a messy issue they're dealing with, and I feel like there could easily a co-argument to localities to stop making it hard for them to be transparent.
Edit: Just saw your comment below about Home Rule. Drat.
- tptacek 3y agoMostly my subtext here is that municipalities should stop being so sneaky with their taxes and just come out and bill residents directly, instead of pretending that their taxes are just Comcast being greedy.
- ckozlowski 3y agoI sense that perhaps a lawsuit targeting this practice might be incoming then, if the FCC forces them to proceed.
- tptacek 3y agoOn what basis would they sue the municipalities?
- Avshalom 3y agoThe FCC did notice. from the article: Providers are free, of course, to not pass these fees through to consumers
- tptacek 3y agoThat's even less transparent!
- neltnerb 3y agoI don't care about any other company being "transparent" in this sense, I care how much what I am paying for will actually cost. It's a low bar, I guess, but the excuses as to why it's too hard are just so insulting to the reader... It's so incredibly strange to see a large corporation complain that figuring out how much its product costs is too hard with one hand while billing people those same fees just fine with the other.
- smsm42 3y agoI don't need to know how the sausage is made, I just need to know how much does it cost. If I'm given a fixed all included price upfront, I don't care how much of if goes where inside of ISP. Now, if they quote me one price and bill another - then we have a problem.
- tptacek 3y agoThey asked to do exactly this and were denied.