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El Reg reports
The US state of Oregon says it will charge Comcast tens of millions of dollars in taxes after revoking a tax break the cable giant had claimed on its broadband service.
The state's Department of Revenue (DOR) has denied a request by Comcast that it be granted an exemption reserved for companies that offer gigabit internet service in the state.
Written to lure Google's Fiber service to Portland after years of courtship, the tax break would give exemptions to reward the installation of high-speed fiber broadband.
Comcast [claimed] its "Gigabit Pro" service tops out at 2Gbit/s and thus made the cable giant eligible to claim the same breaks as Google.
The DOR, however, did not agree, and it ruled earlier this week that Comcast will have to pay the taxes.
[...] Critics of Comcast have previously argued that the Gigabit Pro service is prohibitively expensive (up to $4,600 a year) and only reaches a small number of Oregon residents.
[...] Both Google and Frontier also had their applications denied because neither has an active gigabit service in the state.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday May 29 2016, @12:02AM
The Register links to an article with related news:
[...] the Oregon Supreme Court affirmed Thursday that Comcast must pay a license fee on its cable modem service in Eugene, a fee the company has been fighting for years.
[...] Google Fiber has said previously that if it has to pay this unusual tax, known as "central assessment," it won't come to Oregon.
—http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2016/05/comcast_loses_key_oregon_tax_r.html [oregonlive.com]
A fee for every Internet line in Eugene, and Google staying away from Oregon, mean that everybody wins.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday May 29 2016, @04:38AM
Google Fiber doesn't permit servers. I just don't see the point of Google Fiber if you can't run servers. There's only so much pr0n that one can watch during one's entire life.
Comcast's business class cable really only has one restriction, that one not resell the service. It's somewhat expensive but the bandwidth is fixed - there are no download caps. I had it for a while and thought it just dandy.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Monday May 30 2016, @12:16AM
I'd like to have Comcast business class cable as out here their service is order of magnitude better than the local phone company. However, Comcast's business class internet and phone is twice the price than the phone company's business class DSL and phone service. The only real complaint I have with the phone company is shoddy dial tone service/noisy line when the ground is wet. However, 2 years of complaints seems to have fixed the phone company's cabinet issue.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday May 30 2016, @08:19PM
send them dead-tree snail mail, not a phone call, not email. Get all your neighbors to do the same.
I have a close friend who writes to the California PUC on a regular basis. She also gets lots of letters to the editor printed in the San Jose Mercury News.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]