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By Mike Saccone
WASHINGTON BUREAU
Friday, November 18, 2005
WASHINGTON ・Proposed changes to federal telephone taxes could
impose a steep financial burden on millions of seniors and
low-income phone users, a study released Thursday found.
According to the report, issued by the Keep Universal Service Fund
Fair Coalition, the Federal Communications Commission is
considering a shift from the current 'pay-for-what-you-use' system
to a monthly flat fee of $1 or $2, or more, per phone line.
The government established the universal service fund ・paid into
by phone companies ・to make telephone service accessible to all at
reasonable rates. The FCC expanded this fund in 1996 to help
extend service to rural and remote areas.
Maureen Thompson, director of the coalition, said the fund was set
up to help seniors on fixed incomes and other low-income
Americans, an estimated 16 million people. But the FCC's looming
fee, combined with inflation, high gas and heating costs, and
rising prescription prices, she said, could make having a phone
line for emergencies untenable for those who need it most.
The report also shows that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's proposed
flat fee could also cost the 43 million Americans who spend less
than 10 minutes a month dialing long distance up to $707 million
annually ・roughly $16 per person.
The current fee that telephone subscribers pay is based on how
much time they spend calling long distance.
Although the FCC has not unveiled any formal proposals to change
the universal service fund, Thompson said Martin has made his
views "very clear" in recent public speeches.
"The universal service mechanism is breaking," Martin told the
National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in July.
"The method for carriers to contribute into the fund is outdated.
It doesn't adequately account for the increase in bundled service
offerings and the shrinking long-distance market."
Martin said then that he supported charging telephone subscribers
a flat rate per phone line instead of a per-use rate.
Linda Sherry, director of National Priorities Consumer Action,
said though the coalition supports the law as is, she would be
open to a compromise that would have telephone users pay per-call
up to an as-yet unspecified limit.
Sherry also said the FCC should consider taxing Internet telephone
service to bolster the fund.
FCC spokesman Mark Wigfield said that even though the formal
public comment period ended in 2002, the commission would still
accept and consider the public's suggestions for adjusting the
fund.
And though he could not comment on a timeline for any rule changes
by FCC commissioners, Wigfield said that Martin has made these
changes, which do not require Congress' approval, "a priority."
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