The nation's telephone companies are fully compensated for Internet usage under the current regulatory structure. Their anecdotal studies seeking to justify new Internet access fees decidedly overestimate the costs attributable to Internet traffic. Nowhere do they compare these alleged new costs with their ordinary cost structures. Moreover, their own data show that most Internet traffic is carried at off-peak hours, and thus does not require addition of new capacity. Perhaps most significantly, these studies also ignore the ILEC's additional revenue streams generated by second lines and per-call fees currently paid by Internet users.
Access charges are a solution in search of a problem.
The FCC should reject them. All rights reserved. Send them to our webmaster. View our privacy policy .