universal service fund

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Net neutrality, patents, broadband top new Congress's tech agenda

When the 110th Congress convenes next year, a number of tech-related initiatives will take center stage, Grant Gross writes for IDG News Service. Among them privacy, patents and network neutrality. Privacy and data breach notification With data breaches exploding all over the private and public sectors, there...

Tags: Universal Service Fund, Representative Rick Boucher, patent

Blog posts 2006-12-25

The Universal Service Fund will now tax VoIP: so what?

The Universal Service Fund will now tax VoIP: so what?So what? It's unfair!VoIP depends on Broadband and DSL to work. Unlike a standard landline which provides its own power. Plus, it's not even available in all areas while regular landline phone service is. To those...

Tags: Taxes, Free trade, Telephony, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, Broadband Internet, Network technology, tax, VoIP, Universal Service Fund

Discussion threads 2006-06-22

No to Internet taxes

When I read that Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican and chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, was a strong supporter of plans to tax Internet communications in order to prop up the wilting Universal Service Fund a pool of funds used to subsidize telecommunications services in rural areas, I had...

Tags: telecommunications, Internet, Universal Service Fund

Blog posts 2006-03-01

Rep. Barton to VoIP providers: you shouldn't have to pay into Universal Service fund

The FCC's $5 billion Universal Service Fund funnels money from traditional phoneservice subscribers, throughstandard phonecompanies, and then to a kitty that subsidizesphone service torural areas and poor households.The program makes social and business sense. The poor are sometimes transient, a fact thatincreases service churn and resulting overhead.With low populationdensity and...

Tags: VoIP

Blog posts 2004-12-04

Additional Resources

U.S. national broadband strategy: Funding is the elephant in the room

we don't need big governmentThe broadband has to be build by private businesses and everyone needs to pay to get it.The government should only provide incentives like tax cuts that are deficit neutral.And of courseAnd of course ZDNet is still pushing the crazy idea that broadband everywhere is inevitable. Somehow,...

Tags: Network technology, Broadband Internet, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, Highways, broadband, broadband over power line, U.S. national broadband strategy, U.S. National

Discussion threads 2009-08-14

Recording VoIP Calls: Is it Legal?

I was on an interview the other day and began thinking about how nice it would have been to record the rather long-winded engineer on the other end of the line. This got me thinking: are you allowed to record your VoIP calls without asking for permission first? Of course...

Tags: Phone, Permission, Vonage Holdings Corp., Telephony, VOIP, Telecommunications, Advertising & Promotion, Networking, Marketing, Dave Greenfield

Blog posts 2009-05-07

$3b approved for rural broadband

$3b approved for rural broadbandPhone service?Isn't USF for phone service, not broadband? not sureWAIT??????Isn't the Universal Service Fund supposed to help pay this?The USF has 4 programs including 1 for High Cost, that consumers in all regions of the nation have access to telecommunications services at rates that are affordable...

Tags: Broadband Internet, Network technology, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, USF, broadband, rural broadband

Discussion threads 2009-01-23

Julius Genachowski & The FCC: A Failure to Communicate?

So Julius Genachowski is to be Barack Obama's choice to head the Federal Communications Commission. Genachowski and president-elect Obama were classmates at the Harvard Law School. And Obama was his boss back then, too, at the Harvard Law Review. GigaOm...

Tags: FCC, Barack Obama, Broadband, Ticketmaster Corp., Interactive Corp., Wireless, Federal Government, Internet, Broadband Internet, Network Technology, Telecommunications, Wireless And Mobility, Government, Networking, Tom Steinert-Threlkeld

Blog posts 2009-01-13

The cloud finally comes to education

Cloud computing is one of those great buzzwords in IT that, so far, has meant very little to the average Ed Tech customer. We all have a pretty good idea what it means: lots of computers somewhere (we don't actually care where) doing lots of processing to deliver services...

Tags: Education, PC, Thin Client, Computer, Cloud, SIMtone Corp., Desktops, Productivity, Thin Clients, Cloud Computing, Hardware, Christopher Dawson

Blog posts 2008-10-06

Wordcamp 2008

In the quiet flats of University of California San Francisco Mission Bay campus, bloggers, thinkers, journalists, developers, and inventors melt together for a full day of lectures and learning. The goal of Wordcamp 2008 is to figure out the future of publishing on the web. ...

Tags: Open Source, Blog, Wordpress, Plug-in, Automattic, Wordcamp, Mullenweg 3:00, BuddyPress, Discovery Channel, Al Upton, ChickSpeak, ScholarPress, Netconcepts, Post Title, Akismet, Virality, Diso, Compliment Spam, Monotone, Prologue, GigaOm Daily, Gigalogue, Comments Screen, Blogging, Internet, Andrew Mager

Blog posts 2008-08-16

Voting For A McCain

SOURCE: Wikimedia Commons So, poor John McCain. At the start of the year, he gets bounced around because he is “not well versed” in economics. In summer, he gets beat up again, because he says he is “illiterate” about technology (and the way he expresses...

Tags: Innovation, Network, John McCain, Obama, Taxes, Free Trade, Internet, Leadership, Financial Planning, Finance, Management, Tom Steinert-Threlkeld

Blog posts 2008-07-16

I guess they read my blog in Nigeria

I guess they read my blog in NigeriaA conspiricy after all ..The buyer now speaks up. And it now appears that the OEM/System Integrator that they are paying to assemble and distribute the laptops took it upon themselves to reconfigure those laptops with Windows on the basis of "thats...

Tags: Operating systems, Business ethics, blog, Now IT, TSC, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows XP, Karl Marx, Mandriva, Linux

Discussion threads 2007-11-09

I guess they read my blog in Nigeria

Yahoo News is reporting that the Nigerian government has decided to accept and use Mandriva Linux on at least 11,000 of the Classmate PCs they ordered. Previously, the agency handling the transaction had decided to accept and pay for the Mandriva-installed computers, but overwrite the OS with Windows XP...

Tags: Blog, Mandriva, Nigeria, Mandriva Linux, Yahoo News, Linux, Open Source, Government, Operating Systems, Software, Christopher Dawson

Blog posts 2007-11-09

A checkpoint on Web 2.0 in the enterprise

For well over a year now we've seen reports and announcements from a major industry analyst firms and others tracking the movement of Web 2.0 ideas into the enterprise. Gartner, Forrester, McKinsey, and many others have all weighed in on the trends or made recommendations, sometimes cautious and sometimes...

Tags: Software, Web, Web 2.0, Complexity, Product, Tagging, Business, Wikipedia, Enterprise, Syndication, User Experience, Dion Hinchcliffe

Blog posts 2007-08-27

Google bets on mobile market

Google bets on mobile marketThe 700MHz frequency band is analog broadcast TV.As they move to digital spectrum, this will more than likely remain for that purpose though perhaps digital TV. The people in America want heir TV, they want to be pacified, they want their ads for stuff they...

Tags: Advertising & Promotion, RSS, TVs, TV & Home Theater, spectrum, Google Inc., mobile, mobile market

Discussion threads 2007-07-31

Mobile carriers making out from rural phone subsidy

The few cell phone companies that provide rural Americans with service are reaping the rewards of a growing government fund, leaving some politicians concerned about the effectiveness of the subsidies, reports the AP.The Universal Service Fund has collected $44 billion over its 10-year lifetime from a surcharge on the phone...

Tags: Mobile/wireless, Regulations

Blog posts 2007-07-23

SunRocket orphans, send me your switching stories

SunRocket orphans, send me your switching storiesVonage: morons on the phone...A less than auspicious start to my relationship with Vonage. I signed up on Monday (16 July). They won't give me the 2-month free deal because "that's Tuesday's deal", so unless I cancel my account and reapply from...

Tags: VOIP, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, Vonage Holdings Corp., SunRocket, ViaTalk, HERE IS, phone

Discussion threads 2007-07-18

IBM VC Group propels 'Innovation Ecosystem': Exclusive interview with IBM Strategy Director

As Director of Strategic Insights, Venture Capital Group IBM Corporate Strategy, Drew Clark drives external innovation into IBM business units. Clark is impassioned about propelling emerging technologies into the IBM ecosystem for mutual success and he shared his passion with me yesterday in a lengthy discussion about the mission...

Tags: Business Models, ecommerce, IBM, Internet Data, VC, Venture Capital, Web 2.0

Blog posts 2007-02-15

Cell phone coverage holes hurt public safety

Cell phone coverage holes hurt public safetyWith the existing towers, if they could just store the customers routs fora reasonable length of time, that would help a lot. In the case of James Kim that would have saved his life. Well, in emergencies, that information would also have to be...

Tags: Cellular phones, Cell Coverage, cell tower, cell phone, phone

Discussion threads 2006-12-15

E-Rate includes funding for PDAs, VoIP, wireless services

The overhauled federal E-Rate program includes funding for email service for mobile, wireless devices, such as the BlackBerry and Palm Treo, reports Ed Week. This is good news for teachers and administrators who need to keep in touch with schools while on the go. "All our administrators...

Tags: Education Technology, Funding, E-Rate

Blog posts 2006-11-10