Oregon Looks to Repeal Law That Gave Comcast a Huge Tax Break A few years ago, you might recall that Oregon legislators passed a new law giving tax cuts to ISPs willing to quickly deploy gigabit broadband in the state. The goal was to encourage the rise of smaller broadband competitors, easing their entry into what traditional has been a very hostile market controlled by politically-powerful incumbents. But the effort had numerous issues, first of which being that an initial draft actually make deployment more expensive for companies like Google Fiber. The other problem: Comcast quickly nabbed millions in tax breaks due to the legislation without having to do much of anything different.

Oregon lawmakers quickly lamented their decision, pointing out that Comcast charging $300 per month (plus a $1000 install fee) wasn't quite the kind of behavior they were looking to reward. The 2015 effort also backfired in that Google Fiber, which had repeatedly hinted at offering service in the city, abruptly backtracked in 2016 after Google higher ups began to get cold feet about the slow pace and high costs of fiber deployments. With the tax cuts intended to aid competition instead going to pad incumbent pockets, the state now wants that money going back into its communities, not Comcast's already-flush wallet. As such, state lawmakers are now looking at killing off the relatively young law entirely. According to estimates, Comcast is now netting $15 million a year in tax breaks from the new law and Frontier Communications about $2.5 million. And again, those huge tax breaks came without either company doing much of anything differently (Comcast had already planned to offer gigabit broadband via DOCSIS 3.1 in the state). State Rep Rob Nosse says the bill was a rushed attempt to improve broadband competition in the state, but wasn't properly vetted before passage. "We should start over. It's too generous a tax break," Nosse said. "I'm not even sure if it's needed, and I think we should stop offering it." "We should start over. It's too generous a tax break," Nosse said. "I'm not even sure if it's needed, and I think we should stop offering it."







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Most recommended from 26 comments



cb14

join:2013-02-04

Miami Beach, FL 7 recommendations cb14 Member The foolishness of corporate welfare has been presented once again.

dvd536

as Mr. Pink as they come

Premium Member

join:2001-04-27

Phoenix, AZ 6 recommendations dvd536 Premium Member 15M year a multi BILLION dollar company wouldn't even feel that loss. yawn

w0g

o.O

join:2001-08-30

Springfield, OR 1 edit 6 recommendations w0g Member yeah originally the bill was to get gigabit FIBER deployed then copper cable came in 'we're deploying gigabit shared copper.'



something tells me they could have deployed gigabit over copper 19 years ago when gigabit Ethernet became possible, but they refused to upgrade or build the technology to do it at the time and saved it for a slow piece meal introduction as they've done (deploy a slower version first, then deploy a slightly faster version next, then deploy x version, and finally, gigabit version to make money off hardware and various fee increases/charges).



the lack of broadband competition OR their control of legislature allowed this 'slow piece meal introduction' of broadband.. if legislature had properly regulated this industry, they could have demanded gigabit speeds be deployed back in 1999.



if you recall back in 2001 everyone used to talk about how japan had this level of tech available, ie 100Mbps symmetrical to the homes for dirt cheap prices like $10-30 a month, while everyone in America was limited to pathetic 256kbps speeds or if you were lucky 1-5Mbps with a 128kbps upload.

Anon17222

@frontiernet.net 3 recommendations Anon17222 Anon DOCSIS 3.1 Last I heard, Comcast had deployed DOCSIS 3.1 to approximately 75% of it's 26 markets.



Oregon may be at the bottom of that list. pooker314

join:2005-04-12

Brush Prairie, WA 3 recommendations pooker314 Member "The goal was to encourage the rise of smaller broadband competitors" This is a bit misleading. This makes it sound like this was some attempt to foster of a bunch of innovative upstarts who might not have the resources to match an 800 pound gorilla like Comcast. That's not really accurate. This was an attempt to bribe to Google into building a network in the Portland area. Nothing more. So only a single competitor was in mind (not plural). And with that in mind, do many people honestly consider Google to be a "smaller broadband competitor"? I suppose if you go by actual network footprint that's accurate. But Google's financial resources are insane. Their cash on hand is more than 50% of Comcast's entire market cap. And as for dealing with politically powerful incumbents, it should be remembered that Google pretty much engineered this tax change despite having zero ISP presence in Oregon (and working with a governor who has clearly demonstrated her willingness to act as a sock puppet for Comcast). The only problem with buying a company off in this manner is that sometimes they don't stay bought. Ostracus

join:2011-09-05

Henderson, KY 3 recommendations Ostracus Member Taking a bite out of crime. Thereby proving the best laws, are the ones with teeth.