American Telecom Mess

Government Fees and Taxes

1. California State Telecomm. Relay Svc Surcharge
2. California State Universal Service Fund
3. California State Excise Tax Surcharge
4. California State 911
5. California State High Cost Fund Surcharge
6. California State Deaf Tax Surcharge

Surcharges & Fees

1. Federal Wireless Number Pooling And Portability
2. Federal Usf Non-Ld Surcharge
3. California State P.U.C. Fee
4. Federal E911

Above is list of taxes and surcharges that is part of your cell phone bill.For the first time, When I saw this list ,I was surprised to see so many taxes and surcharges.What's the need of so many taxes? Couldn't the Government collect some kind of single tax which can replace all the other taxes and fees? Single Tax/surcharge is easier to manage both by payer and payee.Some of the taxes are obvious but some like California State Telecomm. Relay Svc Surcharge are difficult to fathom. What could be Telecomm Realy Svc? Only California state could answer.You have state 911 and federal 911 tax.What's the need for two 911 surcharges? You have many surcharges charged both by both State and Federation.

Most ludicrous tax is High Cost Fund Surcharge. Whose cost of funds are high? Have you seen somebody charging you because some body's cost of funds is high?

Overall,this doesn't present a good picture of American Telecom sector.Higher number of taxes impede growth of any sector.

Take notice of some other indicators of existing Telecom mess::

1. Incoming calls are charged to receiver of call.(Operators in countries like India where Average revenue per user per month less than $15 do not charge customers for incoming calls.)
2. Non presence of pan US operator.(AT&T has license to operate in 22 states only.)
3. Not enough competition among telecom operators.
4. Non existence of cellular network in some parts of the country.(Hard to believe but truth is that there are some regions which don't have cellular coverage.)
5. Strong lobbying by incumbents like Verizon and AT&T etc(Their recent opposition to Google's suggestion of shared spectrum.)

Things don't look enthusiastic for Consumers.

Regulators should step in and take some path breaking decisions to clear this mess.It's sad to note that sorry state of affairs exists in an industry like Telecom which is considered to be backbone of knowledge society.