I am curious as to the source of such keen clairvoyance that you were able to determine that the original poster was inquiring about surcharges & taxes applicable to a VoIP provider.
Trixter aka Bret McDanel wrote: > On Wed, 2008-08-06 at 02:01 -0400, VIP Carrier wrote: >> Can some one share with me an information about Federal and State >> Surcharges and Taxes in New York. >> I would like to know what % and for what? > > > Federal may or may not apply, the USF contributions (which change every > quarter) are only for "interconnected voip providers" as defined by > statute. > > http://www.fcc.gov/omd/contribution-factor.html > Proposed contribution factor for the third quarter 2008 is 0.114 or > 11.4%. > > http://law.justia.com/us/cfr/title47/47-1.0.1.1.9.html > Interconnected VoIP service. An interconnected Voice over Internet > protocol (VoIP) service is a service that: > > (1) Enables real-time, two-way voice communications; > > (2) Requires a broadband connection from the user's location; > > (3) Requires Internet protocol-compatible customer premises equipment > (CPE); and > > (4) Permits users generally to receive calls that originate on the > public switched telephone network and to terminate calls to the public > switched telephone network. > > > note the use of "and" it means that you must meet all 4 criteria or you > arent an "interconnected voip provider". Stanaphone split their inbound > and outbound service specifically to avoid this, I havent heard any > lawsuits over this, but I havent looked either to see if they are > successful in doing this. They may have changed their program in > response. > > So you have options, #1 is almost always a given, #2 can be avoided by > not _requiring_ one (gsm/g.729/ilbc/etc limit channels so it works over > a modem or other non-broadband connection), #3 applies almost always > unless you do ipx or something silly that way, even an asterisk box > would count as CPE. And I covered #4 options before, remember the word > "and" is in that one too. > > The more you can get around the more likely it is that your claim you > arent a "interconnected voip provider" counts. Course you will have to > pay USF if you dont qualify, since ultimately the pstn carriers will > have to charge someone or get an exemption (such as a FCC 499 number, > not required but often is what is used). > > USF is also only payable per the FCC order if your contribution is > $10k/year or more you also only have to do the 499A (annual) not the > 499Q (quarterly) filings. So you *might* be able to get a number, then > not pay because you dont owe but get an exception from the carrier. > Odds are that wouldnt be exactly legal though, they want *someone* to > pay. But it is based on "end user" revenues, and you are just reselling > so there is a hook that may work for you. Talk to legal though. > > In addition this definition applies to CALEA (wiretap) and E911 > services, if you dont qualify as an "interconnected voip provider" you > dont have to do those things either, if you do qualify you must. > -- Alex Balashov Evariste Systems Web : http://www.evaristesys.com/ Tel : (+1) (678) 954-0670 Direct : (+1) (678) 954-0671 Mobile : (+1) (706) 338-8599 _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- AstriCon 2008 - September 22 - 25 Phoenix, Arizona Register Now: http://www.astricon.net asterisk-biz mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
