Declan McCullagh on Thu, 2 Apr 1998 21:18:34 +0200 (MET DST) |
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<nettime> [US news] The modem tax is back! |
******* http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1869,00.html The Netly News April 2, 1998 * * * Is the "modem tax" back? FCC Commissioner Susan Ness said on Monday that ISPs might have to pay so-called universal service charges that help subsidize cheap rural phone service and school and library Internet connections. At issue is whether ISPs should be classified with phone companies as "telecommunications services," which are required to pay a 4 percent tax on customer billings. It's not helping matters that the software for making voice calls over the the Internet is getting toward OK. * * * ******* Some excerpts from Commissioner Ness' remarks: "Local telcos complain that data calls typically last much longer than voice calls, tying up switches and requiring the addition of more capacity in the loop and the central office. "An appropriations measure passed by Congress last fall, at the urging of Senator Stevens, requires the Commission to review the statutory definitions of "telecommunications," "information services," and related terms. It directs us to evaluate the impact of the Commission's interpretations of these terms on the provision of universal service. "A variation of this argument is that information services and telecommunications services no longer constitute a dichotomy but overlapping groups. As a result, some, but not all, information services are subject to Title II regulation. "Perhaps some new services, like Internet telephony, ought to be subject at some future date to [government regulation], but it's really too soon to do anything about this." Starting this year, companies providing interstate "telecommunications service" must hand over to the government approximately four percent of what they billed customers. This is to pay for universal service -- rural phone service and wiring schools and libraries -- and the percentage is subject to change. Currently "telecommunications carriers" include local telcos, long distance companies, paging companies, payphone providers, cell phone firms, etc. (Some pager companies have sued, claiming the FCC has levied an unlawful tax; this is before a federal appeals court now.) Question is: should ISPs be subject to the taxes now applied to "telecommunications services" -- which means higher prices for customers? At least one FCC commissioner seems to think so. -Declan ****** The 1996 Telecommunications Act's definitions: `(41) INFORMATION SERVICE- The term `information service' means the offering of a capability for generating, acquiring, storing, transforming, processing, retrieving, utilizing, or making available information via telecommunications, and includes electronic publishing, but does not include any use of any such capability for the management, control, or operation of a telecommunications system or the management of a telecommunications service. `(48) TELECOMMUNICATIONS- The term `telecommunications' means the transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user's choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received. `(49) TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIER- The term `telecommunications carrier' means any provider of telecommunications services, except that such term does not include aggregators of telecommunications services (as defined in section 226). A telecommunications carrier shall be treated as a common carrier under this Act only to the extent that it is engaged in providing telecommunications services, except that the Commission shall determine whether the provision of fixed and mobile satellite service shall be treated as common carriage. `(51) TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICE- The term `telecommunications service' means the offering of telecommunications for a fee directly to the public, or to such classes of users as to be effectively available directly to the public, regardless of the facilities used.'. ***** -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe: send a message to majordomo@vorlon.mit.edu with this text: subscribe politech More information is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----End of forwarded message----- --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@desk.nl and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@desk.nl