Fergie's Tech Blog

Senators Favor Applying USF Tax to VoIP

Anne Broache writes on C|Net News:

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 multibillion-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 who counts himself among the fund's staunch supporters, said Tuesday that "without Universal Service, just having a dial tone would average about $200 per month" for many residents in his home state.

posted by Fergie @ 2/28/2006 12:00:00 PM