Broadband Users May Soon Have To Pay A Universal Service Tax

Those of you using broadband may soon find yourself paying new universal service taxes similar to those you see on a standard phone bill.  The decision of course would be made by Congress, who would have to change the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This is the bill which is responsible for the Universal Service Fund that we see on phone bills. The USF should continue to be “industry funded,” but the base of contributors should be expanded to “all providers of two-way communications, regardless of technology used, to ensure competitive neutrality,” a bipartisan coalition of rural legislators said in a June 28 letter to the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, which will be drafting the rewrites. This would also mean that companies providing services over broadband lines, like Vonage for example, would also be liable to pay into the fund.

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