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Re: Obama Proposes New Wireless Spectrum Fee
Under President Obama's budget submitted to lawmakers, wireless carriers such as Verizon, AT&T and Sprint would be hit with huge fees for the right to hold a spectrum license. The fee per carrier would be $50 million this year and eventually rise to $500 million per carrier, per year within a decade. Users fear carriers will add the new fee to phone bills.
The Obama administration Feb. 26 proposed to tax wireless carriers as much as $550 million per year for the right to hold a spectrum license. The fee would be in addition to the billions carriers have already paid in spectrum auctions held by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission).
Under the budget outline provided by the Obama administration, the new fees would be used to help reduce the $1.7 trillion national deficit. The proposal before Congress would charge carriers like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint $50 million this year. The fee per carrier would jump to $200 million in 2010 and eventually rise to $550 million by 2019.
According to the OMB (Office of Management and Budget), the fees would generate $4.8 billion over the next 10 years.
"We will need to begin bringing down the budget deficit to avoid a fiscal crisis in the future. So as we come out of the recession, and consistent with the President’s campaign proposals, the budget combines spending reductions and revenue increases," OMB Director Peter Orzag stated on the OMB blog. "The roughly $2 trillion in deficit reduction that the budget contains for the next decade is split evenly between spending reductions (of roughly $1 trillion) and revenue increases (of roughly $1 trillion)."
The nation's major carriers were mum on the proposal, taking the official stance that they are reviewing the proposal. However, it is widely expected the carriers will fight the new fee as it works its way through the Congressional budget process.
While the carriers were silent on the fee, bloggers were not. At DSLReports.com, for instance, bloggers widely panned the proposal, claiming that the carriers could be expected to tack the fee onto users' phone bills. "All of it will just be passed on to the consumers as another tax hidden by the feds in fees on businesses," wrote one blogger. Another predicted the proposed fee would become "another USF [Universal Service Fund] slush fund."
In the most recent FCC spectrum auction, carriers paid nearly $20 billion to grab a swath of the 700MHz spectrum being deserted by broadcasters as part of the digital television transition. Verizon was the big winner, paying more than $6.5 billion for six large regional licenses that are the equivalent of a national license. In addition, Verizon Wireless won 24 regional licenses located in most of the country's metropolitan areas and another 77 smaller licenses.
Satellite television provider EchoStar was the other big winner in the auction, grabbing enough regional licenses to establish a national footprint while AT&T won 266 small licenses.
Verizon Wireless' new prime airwaves are considered particularly well-suited for broadband because the signal properties can travel great distances and penetrate mountains, buildings and walls. The FCC placed conditions on the sale of the spectrum, requiring the winning bidder to build an open network to which users can connect any legal device and run the software of their choice.
- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
Re: Obama Proposes New Wireless Spectrum Fee
It keeps getting worse and worse. Does this genius not realize that those companies will just pass the cost onto us?
Re: Obama Proposes New Wireless Spectrum Fee
It keeps getting worse and worse. Does this genius not realize that those companies will just pass the cost onto us?
Yep, especially in this current economic climate.
In reality this is nothing more than a tax on the poor because they will get priced out of cell phone usage.
Oh well, the days of every little kid having a cell phone needed to come to an end anyways. Might as well tax the kid out of the phone since mommy and daddy don't give a shit.
Maybe some of the intelligence can slowly come back to this country.
Re: Obama Proposes New Wireless Spectrum Fee
I like the idea of young kids not having a fucking cell phone and being constantly attached to it.
But I hate the idea of posing a tax on carriers and not expecting it to be placed on consumers. I thought he wanted to stimulate the economy and encourage consumption. Taxing items to take care of the gigantic deficit is not a good idea when the poor will get hit the hardest.
Re: Obama Proposes New Wireless Spectrum Fee
So does anyone still think Obama knows what the fuck he is doing? I mean before the election he had a shit load of people that would die by his words.. Where they at now?
They're praying for a new credit card or two to max out so they can try and pay for the coming change they believed in.
Re: Obama Proposes New Wireless Spectrum Fee
No, I think what's happened with the Obamanuts is the fact they are sitting back, not sure of what he's doing.
It's not that what Obama is doing is bad, but the man really is doing his own thing right now, with even the Democrats at bit miffed as where he's going with it.
It happens with every new man in office. Right now we just sit back and see where it goes. People that are doom and gloomin' it already with Obama, were people that didn't really want him in office to begin with. The same people that blame George Bush for letting 9/11 happened, that whole 8 months in office he had to prevent it.
Re: Obama Proposes New Wireless Spectrum Fee
I voted for Obama, but I'm not hiding. I just think we need more than less than two months to judge him. Not even two months yet. The first two months of W were great. Even I loved it. He had some good ideas and actually did a few things in that 8 month period before 9/11 that I wholeheartedly supported. Had his presidency ended then, he'd be looked on a lot differently. Same goes here. It's like we're calling the game in the first minute.
This idea I'm not a fan of. The only thing is, a TON more people still are gonna be getting cell phones. A lot. Wireless carries are still gonna make a shitload of money they are not getting now. Will they make enough more to offset this fee? I can't answer that.
I've got news for most of you anyway. You cell phone bill is going to go up regardless.
Re: Obama Proposes New Wireless Spectrum Fee
I think this will affect wi-fi internet moreso than cell phones. The 700MHz they reference at the end I think was bought for that purpose. Basically the future will hold another option instead of cable or FIoS. Speaking of cell phones, I met up with some college roomates a few weeks ago, one is a grade school teacher (5th I think). He said back in '99 no kids had cell phones, now ALL of them do. In grade school they can't have them on, but he said his high school allows them to be on for some reason. Crazy though, 5th F***king graders needing cell phones?! ALL of them.
As for Obama, I give it 2 years before we should really judge how the directions going. Happened for Reagen, happened for Clinton. Which is right in time for the 2010 elections, if the country & it's economy pick up, Dems will reap the benefits, if things go wrong the Republicans will likely pick up some seats in the house & Senate. I still have no doubt in my mind Obama was the better choice than McCain. The GOP brought no solutions & their only distinguished difference was to continue giving tax breaks to the wealthy, which isn't going to do much anyway. Oh, and their big new thing is take some of the money, but not all the money?
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