High Court to Hear Cable Internet Case

Dr. Cajones · 2004-12-03T21:07:27+00:00

High Court to Hear Cable Internet CaseDecember 03, 2004 12:58:00 PM ETWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Friday it would decidewhat regulations should apply to high-speed broadband Internet serviceoffered by cable television companies like Time Warner Inc. (TWX)The Federal Communications Commission determined in 2002 that broadband viacable companies was an information service and therefore insulated from mostregulations that apply to traditional telephone services.However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned thatdecision, relying on its previous ruling that broadband via cable companieshad a telecommunications component and should be subject to stricterregulations.The high court will likely hear arguments in March, with a decision due bythe end of June.Broadband, also offered by telephone carriers, is catching on among manyU.S. consumers who want faster Internet service to, among other things, playmusic and videos. About 28 million Americans subscribe to the service, butthe United States lags about a dozen countries in deployment.President Bush pledged during his campaign that he would push for universalaccess to broadband by 2007.The FCC argued that the appeals court incorrectly overrode the agency andits expertise to oversee and regulate the telecommunications and mediaindustry.

Dec 03, 2004 22 Replies

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Raising taxes is different than creating new taxes.

The only members of Congress or Senators who can vote for a new tax are those who won't be facing a serious challenger in the next election. With campaign finance reforms slowly being enacted, the advantage of the incumbent is decreasing. There also has been a cultural shift to disfavor the bums that are already in there. So fewer and fewer politicians are in a position from which they can advocate any new taxes no matter how great the need.

And it gets worse as you move down to the state and local levels. But at least on the local level an advocacy group can campaign for public favor of new taxes when there is an obvious enough of a need, and they can articulate a better campaign than the anti-tax advocates.

Now, can we really expect Federal action that will allow the taxation of "bandwidth", and then action to create new taxes? I think anyone who thinks that this can be accomplished without some major cultural paradigm shifts is being naive.

Could there be a major cultural paradigm shift that will result in people being willing to allow additional taxes? Possibly. But I don't believe it will happen until *after* major systematic failures occur. Perhaps not until the baby boomers are dead, and Gen-X realizes that if they don't change, they'll meet the same fate as their parents did, suffering through retirement in poverty.

But I'm widening the scope too much.

I believe that if anyone wants to bet against me, I can become a rich man betting that there will *not* be any taxes on "bandwidth" in the next decade regardless of any needs for those taxes.