Another political brouhaha is fulminating in Washington around E-Rate, the federal program that funds broadband in schools and public libraries. After earmarking more E-Rate funds Wi-Fi in July, Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler on Monday proposed raising the cap on funds available for general broadband by $1.5 billion. Paying for that would require a hike in federal fees applied to phone service, which Wheeler said would amount to about $1.90 a year on the average consumer’s bill. But Republicans, including FCC commissioner Ajit Pai, said it amounted to 17.2 percent tax increase and pledged to oppose it.
Subscriber content
?
Subscriber content comes from Gigaom Research, bridging the gap between breaking news and long-tail research. Visit any of our reports to learn more and subscribe.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
["wijax_a9bc8c955bb405bc20b8c2d0a8306363","wijax_2acbcc50d6bc33976902a7f007edf45e"]
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2014\/11\/17\/fccs-wheeler-proposes-phone-fee-hike-to-fund-school-broadband\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_f415e6c5128a85a04f777019ea18b275","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2014\/11\/17\/fccs-wheeler-proposes-phone-fee-hike-to-fund-school-broadband\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_f415e6c5128a85a04f777019ea18b275","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}
Comments have been disabled for this post