FCC = Federal Coincidences Commission
from the one-song-of-happy-birthday-goes-a-long-way dept
The FCC took another step towards heavily regulating telephone replacement VoIP services, ruling that its providers must pay 7 percent of their revenues into the Universal Service Fund, a move which had been expected for some time. What makes the announcement a little more curious is that DSL providers won't have to pay into the fund after August, so, as Reuters puts it, "the FCC had to act to avoid a potential shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars." Funny how DSL providers -- otherwise known as telcos -- will no longer have to pay in, while at the same time, the VoIP companies that are stealing their voice subscribers get hit with what amounts to a 7 percent tax. Given the rather chummy relationship between the current commission and the big telcos, it's pretty hard to see this as a coincidence, but instead yet another sign of the FCC commissioner's double standards on regulation and continued protection of incumbent telcos.
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Put this way...
B. Look for the telcos that can line your pockets for years and years to come.
Sure the honorable thing to do would be A. but considering all the money that B. offers I think you can tell which one they chose.
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Re: Put this way...
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Re: Re: Put this way...
You attack someone because they simply see that corruption is running amok in our system.
I won't argue that TechDirt can't make up it's mind on this one: The telco's don't offer "naked" DSL, which means DSL users pay the USF fee on the phone lines. Yet the article seems to forget that point.
Regulation built the monopolies and honest politicians could stop this from getting worse, but there are few honest politicians left. The day of the statesman is over.
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The most sensible approach is probably to assess USF on connections rather than revenue. The chairman of the FCC is supposedly interested in permanent reform that would mostly assess USF on telephone numbers. This would be an imperfect proxy for connections that would result in a good bit of strategic behavior (tax avoidance).
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Re:
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Sensible thing is to ban the FCC
First it was killing AT&T's competition - while passing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act no less - by deciding that telecom was a "natural monopoly" and a "public good." That killed competition outright until the 1960's.
Then it was the half-assed freeing of the long-distance market by allowing MCI and Sprint to offer lower prices, but not allowing AT&T to do the same.
Then it was the 1984 breakup of the bells, because after all, seven monopolies are better than one.
Then it was the 1996 Act, that allowed companies to exploit legal loopholes to attract investor dollars that would have been better spent elsewhere.
Why is it that every unregulated industry, from auto manufacturing to zit cream, is so competitive as to be brutal, while the regulated ones are monopolies? The answer is easy.
"They should pass a law" is everyone's first reaction to any perceived injustice, and it always makes matters worse. But of course, things are so bad now they should pass a law. The one that abolishes all the other laws they have come up with over the years.
Then nobody would be paying the Universal Service Fund, or the Spanish American War tax on long-distance, or what have you.
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Re: Sensible thing is to ban the FCC
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Shocked
1) The Telcos yet again gain more power and money.
2) Anonymus Coward hasn't posted on this yet :)
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Re: Shocked
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so they arent even trying anymore
just going to openly be corrupt..
FCC is in bed with these telcos and no one is doing anything about it
i tried to look up the word integrity in the dictionary...
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Re: so they arent even trying anymore
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FCC can go...
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Couple Questions
- My answer to this is that i don't think it ever happened. It's been so long I am starting to think it was all an induced dream I had in the 70's.
What would happen if Microsoft were to convince that its OS is so broadly used that introducing any other OS would just further confuse the masses and hurt the industry as a whole, and that the should legislate against further non-MS OS's?
- My answer to this would be that there would be a huge out cry of foul play and actions would be taken against MS to slap thier hands. In short, everyone would be all over it.
So why is it any different with the Telcos? Why do the posters on boards such as this seem to be the only group that cares or pays attention to whats going on?
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wow
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Just in case
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http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
or
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?State=
learn who they are and contact them
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VoIP is Available to more than DSL Customers
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$200 Billion
http://www.tispa.org/node/14
Yes, the government's corrupt and in bed with big businesses. Look at campaign contributions, look at who's elected, and look what legislature they try to push.
Now try to inform the everday citizen, and see if they even care. People in this country are fat, lazy and stupid, and until this mentality takes a 180 we're just going to keep electing more useless candidates. Just look at who's running for office in `08. The same meida whore's trying to milk as much attention as they can so the sells of their next book will go up. I pray for a revolution, however China will probably "reform" the US before any of it's own citizens will.
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