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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

In this case, ISPs are charging prices they don't want, but rather are mandated to by local governments.

Those are expenses. The ISPs choose the price they want based on their expenses. Complaining about local regulations is no more or less legitimate than complaining about the price of copper.

No, they're not. Comcast's price doesn't float municipality to municipality. These are simply taxes that local governments are charging and forcing Comcast to collect.

Prices do change in different municipalities. I've paid different sticker prices in different towns that are within an hour of each other for the same service.

This is the real price though. The customer doesn't care normally - the price is what they pay, not the weird partial amount that the ISP itself gets in the end.

> customer doesn't care normally - the price is what they pay

A savvy customer should. If 90% of the bill is Comcast, I'm going to negotiate with Comcast. If 90% is municipal fees, I'm going to call my city council.

Ok, sure. And this is exactly why this rule is being put into place. So customers can see a list of fees instead of some nebulous “fee” added on that tells the consumer nothing about what they are actually paying for.

The US has a long tradition of separating taxes from sale prices. Every fast food joint lists a price w/o sales tax. You don't pay sales tax to the state individually. The state is taxing the businesses' sales, but the cost is passed on to you. Why should ISPs not be able to do the same thing Del Taco does?

In my area we have small shopping districts that have their infrastructure funded through a 1.7% sales tax on every retail business. Best Buy doesn't change the price of the iPhone 14 to reflect this. Should they? I don't know. Instead taped to the surface of every checkout is a typed note informing the customer of the improvement fund. I think a good compromise would be to allow advertising to remain how it is, but require a full detailed bill at the point of sale.

That's a normal part of business.

Really? In what other ordinary retail business do you need to get a customer zip code before you can quote them an accurate price on a standard offering?

Practically all of them. I don't see the final price from pretty much any online store until I put in my ZIP as otherwise it doesn't know shipping or taxes.

But at least I can see the final price before I choose to commit to buying the item. Many ISPs won't tell you what the bill is going to be until they've already wired you up for service.

Don't they need to know your address anyways to check if they can provide service at all?

Zip code isn't nearly enough information to work out telecom taxes/fees, as they often cross political boundaries with potentially different rates and charges. You need a full street address.

Same for sales tax, if you are selling in a way where the applicable sales tax is where the customer lives rather than where the seller is.

E-commerce?

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