FCC eyes putting VoIP into USF pool

What Congress gives, the FCC may take away. Hard on the heels of news that the U.S. Congress will finally repeal a 19th-century telephone excise tax, FCC chairman Kevin Martin is floating the idea that VoIP carriers should be contributing to the Universal Service Fund. The fund, which paid out $7.3 billion last year, is designed to subsidize phone service to 7 million rural homes, the poor, schools and libraries. Legacy telcos pay 10.9 percent of their interstate and international revenues into the fund. VoIP carriers don't currently pay, and DSL and cable carriers become exempt in August. The FCC next meets June 15.

For more information on the FCC proposal:
- read this article from eWeek