Broadband USF & VoIP 'Tax'

Is it just me or does this issue keep coming up? The USF is such a waste.

I think it's good that this issue keeps being brought up.
This is something that really needs to be addressed.. Soon.

I agree, I would just like to see some resolution as opposed to having it loom over like a cloud...

They are trying to put a tax on everything they can think of. That's the idea. The USF (universal service fund) is to help other area's with phone service and broadband I was told. Paying twice for telephone service via USF FUND, there should be no excuse why everyone doesn't have a phone or broadband that fund was started years ago. They should have Billions in that fund. So the question is where does the money go? Figure that out. Just not where it all should go Meanwhile I still have no Broadband Via the USF fund or BELL SOUTH!!!!

"any communication that transfers knowledge"

Does that mean political speeches are exempt?

You are assuming they are transferring knowledge and not BS!

Re-read his post. Actually, he's assuming they are transferring BS and not knowledge.

in the cases of many ISP's, its probably a transfer of p0rn

Okay, carnal knowledge counts I guess.

Ahhh, how true! My bad!

No, but that would mean the internet as well. I honestly think that VoIP should be exempt. If it were ran by field techs running new lines to make internet and phone service possible, then yes, but since it REQUIRES high speed internet to use, I think it's just a way to get more hands on our hard earned money. If you are a supporter of this movement, then maybe you could enlighten me on the positive side to this, since I already have to pay for internet just to use the service. This is what causes new technologies to go under, or not even be created at all. The idea of possibly being taxed and losing your business because the value was stripped by the government just blows me away. Look at your normal telephone bill before taxes and fee's the Government takes their chunk. If we had no taxes on that, our home phone would only be around $15 a month for local access and dialtone.

Instead of expanding the USF fund to start taxing VOIP or any other "communication" method, they should just kill it all together. It is nothing but a way to fund pork projects for individual congresscritters. The fund has been horribly abused and does very little to provide the benefits proclaimed at its founding. And increasing the size of the fund will do little or nothing to address the problems.

And that's exactly why it's going to stay in place. Once them there congresscritters get a good source of extortion taxation, they never let go. Usually it only gets larger and expands beyond the original premise for which it was instated.

Case in point, the gasoline excise tax of 1956. It was only supposed to be there to fund the construction of the highway system. The interstates are finished but the tax remains.

I'm only half-way kidding, but where do you live that the Interstates are "finished?"

soooooooo....when the construction ended, no maintenance ever had to occur? these superhighways are completely maintenance free?

i'm betting those taxes are used for repairs and maintenance, not just new construction. maybe i'm wrong...;)

If we would build our higways like the germans... we would spend more up front, and spend a hell of lot less long-term trying to maintain them. The Autobahn is roughly twice as thick as a standard U.S. interstate. They also take many other things into considersation since cars are frquently (and legally) doing 100+mph on them.

Don't forget who this slush fund is paid TOO. Namely, the large Telco's. They of course want to see this "Fee" increased and expanded to other forms of communications so that the expenses for competition increase while they get the proceeds.

It must be great to be in an industry where the more your competition succeeds the more you can make from them.

Absolutely on the money!

isn't this double dipping? specially with those that have DSL

how can anyone possibly think this is a good idea?

I guess that depends if you're the payer or the payee... I'm sure to the Telco's this sounds AWESOME. To EVERYONE else, this is about as beneficial as multiple gunshots to the head.

Why I have to pay a FCC mandated line access charge of $5 each month just because I am connected to a active phone line. This is, of course, nothing but a government imposed money stream to the telco. Like it costs them anything like $60 a year to provide my phone service. A computer doesn't get paid. WHY do we have to subsidize every business expense of the telco?

Especially when I have just basic phone service without all the add on crap. And, have you noticed that charge keeps going up and up? Seems like it has more than doubled in just a couple of years

Probably from smaller rural states.

They should have ZERO fricking say on this.

Rural people need to form their own muni networks and lobby their redneck congressmen into allowing muni networks like MCCAIN.

There are people in Urban areas that can't even afford broadband. Funny how congress is trying to preven access to the poor but wants it for the rurals.

A "friggin" men.

Isn't electricity a "must" utility? Is there an electricity "USF"?

With satellite and wireless technology, there's no reason every treehouse in the woods has to be wired.

The Unregulated Slush Fund needs to be done away with, and the sooner the better.

Any "communication" that transfers knowledge? So we're going to have an FTP, HTTP, VOIP, P2P, IM, SMTP, POP3... tax?

If we assume for the moment that the "connection" itself can be taxed, are we actually saying that we're going to tax your cable line and give it to the telephone company?

This is absurd. End the USF and let the rural telephone network rot. What will this affect? 2% of the U.S. population? Sorry, Charlie...only the freshest tasting tuna get to be called Chicken Of The Sea...

I guess this means that freedom of speech wouldn't be allowed to be free.

Seriously though, wouldn't "any communication that transfers knowledge" include e-mails, IMs, web pages, newspapers, and billboards? Not to mention every other type of communication that I can think of. It's a really stupid idea, especially if the USF isn't fixed first.

Ted Stevens of Alaska! This great American Statesman (joke) takes home more pork than just about everybody in Washington put together. The mealy mouth politicians tell us they are against raising our taxes, yet they support raising every sneaky fee, license, or tax they can put their grubby hands on. I love my country.... but I hate my government the way its run today.

Either they must get rid of the USF altogether or make them all have it. Traditional telecom and voIP lines should certainly be on level playing grounds. Considering SO MANY people on this site swear that VoIP is better *rolleyes* , theres no reason VoIP shouldnt be taxed equivalently.
Who cares whether or not the conversation is being sent across wires by a digital or analog signal ? The end result is the same either way... an audible phone conversation.

There should be accountability for the USF. Is there a way to find out how much money is in it right now? Who has control of spending it? And what are they spending it on? I for one wish it was ended, because it seems like it is just a big pile of cash waiting for congresscritters to load up a wheelbarrow full and walk away with it without any accountability. Correct me if I am wrong.

I wanna see where the POTS usf money is going?
Its one big slush fund, which ought to be cut. I remember a story on millions that was spent on telephone equipment, computers, and other stuff that sat in a warehouse in Where of all places? PuertoRico!!!! For decades, and by the time they got around to seeing if it could be used, it was obsolete!! The same bureaucratic FOOLS that run this are boondoggling the Katrina relief projects!!! God-Forbid they spend the taxpayers' money in good, benevolant ways.

I personally, can't see USF funds being expanded for internet based communications, while crap like the boondoggle in PuertoRico still happens today! The USF fund should not be a necessarily HUGE tax. There are better ways to issue 'credits' to qualifying people. Persons earing the minimum wage (or there abouts) should be the one receiving this kind of money (persons hovering around the poverty line).

Also, as welfare programs go, this is one that is LOOONG overdue for an overhaul in the way of accountability. They got people off hand-out welfare (late 90's), but the taxes people pay on their bills still goes to a program that 'hands out' freebies to certian individuals and groups who really, just plain don't need it. This should change FIRST. Just like your water bills are supposed to report all the contaminants and program costs that make up your bill, so should the other digital communcations water-tap.

Watch your elected officials carefully.......they're attempting to put over another tax that will eventually affect everyone with a computer and internet connection. Write, call, challenge....do whatever you can to stop this craziness once and for all. Their hand is in your pocket as you read this and they really believe that the average citizen could care less. It's your money and probably the last chance you'll have to make yourself known. Please write or call now and voice your opinion.....and then forward this message to all that you can. You CAN make a difference.

»stevens.senate.gov/contact.cfm

»burns.senate.gov/index.c ··· .Contact

»www.fcc.gov/commissioner ··· ail.html

Senators back new broadband taxes

Tue Feb 28
WASHINGTON--New broadband taxes may be on the horizon, if an influential senator and his like-minded colleagues get their way.

At a Tuesday hearing convened by the Senate Commerce Committee, several senators from largely rural states called for expansion of the Universal Service Fund (USF), a multi-billion-dollar pool of money that's currently used to subsidize telecommunications services in rural and other high-cost areas, schools and libraries.

Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican thinks all "communications" services, which he defined for reporters after the hearing as "transmitting knowledge from one person to another," should be forced to pay. "I believe fax is a communication, I think e-mail is a communication, and I do believe they all should contribute," he said.

He isn't the only one. Sen. Conrad Burns, a Montana Republican on the Commerce Committee, introduced a bill earlier this month that would require contributions from "every provider of "telecommunications, broadband service or broadband voice service," including all cable, DSL, spectrum, and other broadband providers. His bill appears to word its contribution mandate for "broadband voice" services broadly enough to include not only voice over Internet protocol providers but also free, voice-based instant messaging services.

Who pays?
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has indicated he is leaning toward a "numbers-based" approach, in which anyone with a phone number would pay into the fund. The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, and the VON Coalition, which represents VoIP interests, also support that approach.

All the senators at Tuesday's hearing clearly agreed on the need for USF reform, their priorities differed.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ALL YOU CAN! THIS IS TOTALLY GRASS ROOT. SHOW THEM WE ARE WATCHING!