Posts by RuralDweller

MPs bash broadband tax

re definitions, please

completely agree, but you have missed the point here - you have been paying a premium price for your "2meg" broadband for years, in order that others can be upgraded from 2 to 4 to 8 to 20 to 50 meg. you have been paying for their upgrades, and it is about time the tables were reversed and people who cannot receive such speeds got to see some benefit for all that money they have been forced to pay in order that many in this column take for expected. you should pay for what you get - 50 meg - £50/mnth, 8 meg considerably less, 2 even less, and if you are unfortunate enough to be able to reach less than 1meg like I am, it should be less again. you don't pay the same for a fiesta as a ferrari, so why should broadband packages be treated differently?

yes, it is a good idea

quote - "the many will be paying for something they will never get a benefit from"

The few have for too long been paying for something they have had or never will get any benefit from. All those upgrades to major city networks to give you all nice fat bandwidth, and we rural dwellers have seen diddly squat by way of recompense for the many years of supporting those upgrades. consider it this way - would you be happy at the same price as you are now, but receiving only 1meg b/b? No you wouldn't. I know it's a choice of where you live. If I am prepared to have sub-standard service, then I should also not be forced to pay premium price for that service.

@blubster

LOL. yeah, mobile broadband - great idea. except I tried that out in rural yorkshire and got 36kb speed. rural = patchy mobile reception. Lose on both counts. :-(

Cloud cuckoo land

All these people living in cities and constantly being upgraded from 1m-2m-4m-8m-20m and now talk of 50meg and beyond. All the while, I have lived in a rural area and paid exactly the same amount for my broadband at 1meg than you have been enjoying for years at speeds way in excess of that (in fact I do not qualify for "cheap location" subsidies that almost all 'urban' residents do, so I am actually paying more for the service). If we talk about "fair policy" then somebody receiving 1meg b/b should pay considerably less than those that receive 8meg. I for one am sick of paying through the nose for my broadband and seeing no benefit from it. wake up. ISP's come on - turn those tables around and now actually put the seven years of me subsidising those in the city for upgrades to pointless speeds and give me something back in return. How many people actually see that much difference moving from 8meg to 20 meg or 50meg? If you *need* that bandwidth then why am I being treated any differently and being put at the back of the queue? Trying to run my own business on 1meg is getting crippling, because I cannot compete with others. 'Digital Britain'? don't make me laugh 'Digital Cities at the expense of those that live in more rural areas' seems a more accurate description.

because we have been supporting you for years

quote "Why should people who can ill afford it have to pay for rich people to have broadband in their country homes?"...

Why? Because we have been fleeced for years supporting the upgrade of your networks whilst ours remain below most 'third' world b/b enabled countries. (okay, not many 3rd world countries have b/b, but countries such as Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania and others are far in excess of what can only be described as third world standard in rural areas.)