As you are reading this you most likely are in Hawaii at PTC enjoying a great networking conference. Telecom Review is once again this year a media sponsor for the event and we look forward to seeing you there. This year’s attendance should be bigger than ever so we hope you find great benefit in the event.

On New Year’s Eve, as people are hanging around the Twitter bar celebrating the upcoming New Year, tax and fee hikes being considered by Washington will be terrorizing taxpayers in 2015. The new plan to regulate the Internet would cost consumers billions. Former FCC commissioners are now letting us know that if Internet Service is reclassified as a telephone service internet users would be forced to pay federal “universal service” fees of up to 16.1%. These fees were initiated years ago to provide basic telephone service but the services have spread their wings over time.

Now the Progressive Policy Institute is reporting that the state and local regulators will also line up at the government “feed trough” in gouging consumers for more tax/fee dollars for pet projects. Some predict that the federal levy may be reduced some from the 16.1% but it will still be high.

This is all despite the fact that the US generates more internet traffic per capita and per internet user than any other country except for South Korea. The US has 4% of the world’s population, 10% of its internet users, 25% of its broadband investment and 32% of the internet traffic. Yet, Washington wants to intervene in a thriving market.

These taxes have not received the attention they deserve and we certainly hope that Congress will make it well known who is responsible for this tax and fee assault on the US consumer.

Jeff Seal

Managing Partner

Telecom Review North America