A controversial proposal by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin plans to hike the Universal Service Fund (USF) charges for phone users who make few or no long-distance calls. But what is long-distance any more? If you're a broadband VoIP user using Vonage, Packet8, etc. technically nothing is long-distance in the traditional sense of the word. Actually, a VoIP call from a Vonage user in Los Angeles to another user in Los Angeles travels a "long distance" since the IP packets have to travel from Los Angeles to Vonage HQ in New Jersey where an outbound call is made back to L.A. Even if Vonage has "local" gateways in California of their own or through an ITSP (such as Level3), the IP packets can still be routed across routers located in different states before finally terminating on the PSTN -- technically making it an intrastate long-distance IP call.
Of course, this new USF proposal is targetted at traditional landline users and not VoIP, but I'm sure some new USF tax on VoIP proposal won't be far behind.
USF tax and long-distance
Categories:
Technorati
Del.icio.us
Slashdot
Digg
twitter- Related Entries to USF tax and long-distance
- FCC approves new VoIP taxes - Jun 22, 2006
- Tax VoIP to fund USF? Bah! - Jun 02, 2006
- FCC taxes VoIP? C'mon! - Dec 15, 2005
- FCC Displeased with U.S. Broadband Deployment Rate - Apr 18, 2007
- Converter Coupon Expired? - Nov 20, 2008
- AT&T Trials Tiered Broadband in Nevada - Nov 03, 2008
- Wireless Free Internet: Thank You FCC! - Oct 16, 2008
- Digital TV Transition Already Has Hiccups - Sep 11, 2008
- FCC to punish Comcast over Internet blocking - Jul 26, 2008
- IRS Rebate Checks Crash Major Banks? - Apr 28, 2008
Listed below are links to sites that reference USF tax and long-distance:
USF tax and long-distance TrackBack URL : http://blog.tmcnet.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/22860
Somehow I missed this yesterday with all the other breaking news, but Tom Keating posted the following incredible bit of information on his blog: A controversial proposal by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin plans to hike th... Read More
Related Entries
- FCC approves new VoIP taxes
- Tax VoIP to fund USF? Bah!
- FCC taxes VoIP? C'mon!
- FCC Displeased with U.S. Broadband Deployment Rate
- Converter Coupon Expired?
- AT&T Trials Tiered Broadband in Nevada
- Wireless Free Internet: Thank You FCC!
- Digital TV Transition Already Has Hiccups
- FCC to punish Comcast over Internet blocking
- IRS Rebate Checks Crash Major Banks?
-
View my Microsoft MVP Profile:
Leave a comment