It might not be a tax, but its worse than one. It is a program that forces consumers to pay more money if they want to use a telephone in suburban/urban America, to help fund monoply or ILEC status control in underserved markets, instead of foster competition. The purpose of USF is that the underlying principle is ALL people deserve to have phones. Its not a fair ultimatum for a person to have to agree not to have a phone, in order to NOT pay USF fees. Currently, there is no way to "op-out" of paying USF, if one maintains their right to a phone.
Tom DeReggi RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chuck McCown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "WISPA General List" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 10:55 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] gotta love USF!!!! > Use magic jack, ham radio, smoke signals, skype or the post office. > Your telephone bill comes from a commercial enterprise. > You do not have to participate. > Therefore you are not forced to pay into our charity program. > That is not a tax. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "RickG" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "WISPA General List" <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 9:52 AM > Subject: Re: [WISPA] gotta love USF!!!! > > >> Tacking a fee on my telephone bill is a form of taxation. -RickG >> >> On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 11:34 AM, Chuck McCown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> The current USF audits by USAC are turning up collusion between school >>> districts (the principle is the brother of the local ISP) and provider >>> of >>> goods and services of E-rate funded projects. The audits have not shown >>> any >>> telephone company to be misusing this money. >>> >>> And I want to repeat, this is not taxpayer money. Most of this money is >>> from a charge tacked onto the bills of the RBOC customers. It is >>> revenue >>> pooling and re-distribution. >>> >>> So, lets back off the "misuse by telephone company" tone of this >>> discussion. >>> If we want to point fingers, you will find the fingers are pointing at >>> the >>> local networking and ISP companies. That is the major source of the >>> misuse. >>> The second is cell phone companies claiming to be providing pots service >>> to >>> rural customers via tellular units. Western Wireless built a business >>> plan >>> around tapping the USF for all it could get. >>> >>> >>> >>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> WISPA Wants You! Join today! >>> http://signup.wispa.org/ >>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> >>> WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] >>> >>> Subscribe/Unsubscribe: >>> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless >>> >>> Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ >>> >> >> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> WISPA Wants You! Join today! >> http://signup.wispa.org/ >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] >> >> Subscribe/Unsubscribe: >> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless >> >> Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ >> > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
