Tax the Network, Not the Application
Aswath put out a draft of the comments he plans to sent to the FCC on the whole Universal Service Fund debacle. I find it interesting that he basically proposes what I recently suggested, which is tax the pipes, not the application:
I think we should consider that “public Internet” is becoming an alternate communications network, on par to PSTN. So we must include access to this network as part of our larger objective and this new network must contribute equally. But at the same time isolating a single application for contributing to USF is counter to our actions in PSTN and does not anticipate the possibility that the interim proposal may also not be sufficient.
Of course, the ultimate question is: will they listen to Aswath? They should, he’s one smart dude.
