Every month, consumers pay a small fee on their phone bills for a federal program that uses the money — a total of $8.8 billion raised nationwide last year — to provide affordable access to telecommunications services in rural areas, underserved inner cities and schools.
Now the fee could start appearing on broadband bills too, in a major expansion of the nearly two-decade-old Universal Service Fund program.
[snip]
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, a Democrat, argued that even if broadband firms are required to contribute, there are no plans to increase the annual size of the fund.
…Note that’s not We’re not going to increase the annual size of the fund. That’s because they’re going to end up increasing the annual size of the fund. Also note: the fund in question was originally designed to levy fees on, and support, phone use. Shockingly, the USF program has smoothly shifted its mandate to a distinct one that was not really intended by the creators of the USF.
Please note that the use of the word ‘shockingly’ was meant in an almost offensively sarcastic manner. Please also note that when your broadband bills go up later this year it’ll be all thanks to a bunch of digital Democrats who can no more refrain from meddling in things they don’t quite understand than they can refrain from metabolizing food. Vote accordingly.
Moe Lane
“If it moves, tax it”.
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B’sides, interesting little detail, Vonage and Comcast and even AT&T VOIP seem to *not* pay the phone tax.
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Mew
The Left won’t care as long as there is the possibility that Net Neutrality will someday be used to silence their enemies.
I’m suddenly no longer irritated that the feds recently arbitrarily and unilaterally changed standards and declared that my DSL no longer qualifies as broadband.