No fiber please, we 're British

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "D.H. van der Woude" <dhvanderwoude () gmail com>
> Date: November 28, 2009 8:34:11 AM EST
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: No fiber please, we 're British

> Fave, for IP if you wish.
>
>
> This post by Herman Wagter may be of interest to some
>
>
> http://www.dadamotive.com/2009/11/no-fiber-please.html
>
> No fiber please
>
> Posted by Herman | November 26 | 2009 6:37 PM |
>
> A seemingly unrelated and innocuous taxation may explain a part of  
> the (lack of) broadband development in the UK, especially outside  
> the bigger cities.
>
> Lit fibers are subject to a property tax (unlike copper wires used  
> for telephony or DSL).
> The VOA (Valuation Office) sets the rateable value.
>
> You can expect to pay for backhaul or corporate networks
> £0.28 per metre per fibre per annum for 2 fibers,
> £0.17 per metre per fibre per annum for 4 fibers,
> The rate scheme drops quickly with the number of fibers in a route  
> to £0.05 per metre per fibre per annum for 40 fibers.
>
> £7.50 per home passed per annum for fibre access networks (to be fin 
> alized).
>
> " As NGA will be mainly the replacement of existing copper  
> infrastructure, the VO considers that the level of value for  
> residential NGA connections will be similar to the £7.50 per home pa 
> ssed adopted for cable TV access networks, the nearest comparable ne 
> twork currently offering broadband services".
>
> The rating scheme penalizes small operators and companies that start  
> their business: their average cost is much, much higher than large  
> existing corporations with a lot of fibers and long lengths. The  
> ones with a lot of fiber can add fiber with low marginal costs of  
> taxation, new entrants have a hard time.
>
> What about smaller villages?
> Lets assume a minimum of 2 fibers in a redundant ring to a village  
> with 1000 homes where 50 % of the people are dying for broadband  
> access, approx 30 km away from the nearest backhaul aggregation point.
> The tax rate is £0.28 per metre per fibre per annum for backhaul of  
> 2 fiber, 60.000 meters (redundant ring) and 2 fibers lead to a tax b 
> ill of £ 33.600 per year, or  £ 67.2 per connected user (50 % penetr 
> ation). Auch.
>
> No wonder you are on your own if you live somewhere a bit off the  
> centre of a city. The business case get harder en harder just  
> because of taxation designed in 2000. The backhaul networks are  
> probably minimized in number of fibers and capacity, shared as much  
> as possible to reduce the costs, leading to high overbookingsratios  
> and lacklustre response times of websites. Could that again be a  
> reason why broadband adoption outside the cities is relatively low?
> It is hard to get a causal relationship proven, but one starts to  
> wonder....



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