An April 1, 2015 Pew Research Center study found that 64 percent of Americans own a Smartphone, and 19 percent “rely to some degree” on their Smartphones to access online services and information. The study also found that 7 percent of Americans owning a Smartphone do not have either traditional broadband access at home or other “easily available alternatives” for going online. On October 29, 2015, Pew released its report, “Technology Device Ownership: 2015,” which found that 68 percent of U.S. adults now own a Smartphone.
Cyber-Security Should Not Take A Back Seat
The federal government spends approximately $80 billion annually on information technology (IT) systems. An April 2, 2014 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that the number of data breaches increased by 143 percent from 10,481 reported incidents in 2009 to 25,566 incidents in 2013. The federal government must take immediate action to protect vulnerable systems and remediate risk.
Time Wasting Away With Internet Tax Ban Set to Expire
On December 16, 2014, the Internet Tax Freedom Act was temporarily extended in the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (H.R. 83), keeping the ban on Internet access taxes in place until September 30, 2015. Unfortunately, time is once again running out and only the House of Representatives has taken any action on the ban, this time making it permanent.
Clarity Needed in Taxation of Digital Goods
With technology changing the way consumers listen and view music and videos, state and local governments are now looking toward taxation of digital goods and services to increase their tax revenues. Currently, 17 states require by statute that taxes be paid on digital goods and services, and another eight states plus the District of Columbia […]
The Rural Broadband Boondoggle
In the 2009 stimulus bill, Congress allocated $2.5 billion to the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) to fund its Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP), all of which was supposed to be spent by the end of June 2015. This was a massive influx of money for a small agency whose previous annual average budget for broadband programs was approximately $290 million in direct loans and grants.
Big Government Threatens Internet Independence
Americans will celebrate their freedom from tyranny on July 4. Unfortunately, these freedoms are rapidly eroding due to an increasing amount of government regulation and intervention into everyone’s daily lives.
Taxing the Digital Age
Imagine someone sitting at the airport terminal in Seattle, Washington, waiting for a flight home to Ohio. Boredom has set in, as she waits for her flight to board, and she wants something to do. So she scans through the app store on her mobile device, finds a game that happens to be located on a server in Utah and purchases it. When she is back in Ohio and opens up her mobile billing statement, she could find a sales tax remittance for not just her home state of Ohio, but also from Utah and Washington. In fact, if the company that developed the app was based in yet another state that taxes digital goods, she could potentially be subject to up to four separate taxes on a single purchase.
Tossing a Broken Lifeline to Subsidize Broadband
In 2014, approximately $8.5 billion was collected in Universal Service Fund (USF) fees from consumers as a tax on their communications services. The four main USF programs are the Low-Income support services, which includes the Lifeline and Link-Up programs; the High-Cost program; the E-Rate Library and Schools program; and the Rural Health program. While there are many questions and concerns about all of these programs, the Lifeline program, which was established in 1985 to provide subsidized telephone services to low-income households, has perhaps the most sordid history of waste, fraud and abuse.
Modernizing the Copyright Office
The digital economy is continuing to grow, and copyright works, including books, movies, music and other creative works, play a large role in that growth. According to the International Intellectual Property Alliance, copyright contributes more than $1 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product, and copyright industries employ nearly 5.5 million workers. However, as the […]
The Need for More Spectrum Auctions
A May 11, 2015 report from the Brattle Group estimates the value of the 645.5 MHz of licensed spectrum currently in use at almost $500 billion. Beyond the monetary value of this spectrum are the services provided to consumers using licensed spectrum through their mobile devices. According to the report, economists have estimated that the […]