North American Network Operators Group
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Re: Broadband ISPs taxed for "generating light energy"

  • From: Michael.Dillon
  • Date: Tue Oct 10 10:59:06 2006 
> "In the process of
> data transmission, other than light energy, no other elements are 
involved and
> the customers are paying for the same. This proves that light energy
> constitutes goods, which is liable for levy of tax. Therefore, the State 
has
> every legal competence and jurisdiction to tax it," the department has
> contended.

Sounds reasonable to me. Since the sale of energy is 
usually measured in kilowatt-hours, how many kwh of
energy is transmitted across the average optical fibre
before it reaches the powereda mplifier in the destination
switch/router?

I'd like to see some hard numbers on this.

The light shining down optical fibres is laser light.
There exist medical devices which are powered by laser
light shining through the tissues. There are also some
types of satellite devices which can receive power from
ground-based laser beams. The crux of this issue is the
actual measurement of power transmitted which will turn
out to be very small.

--Michael Dillon