Don't Tax Municipal Wi-Fi

[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Ron Sege, CEO of Tropos Networks]
[Commentary] President Bush has established the important goal of achieving universal broadband availability for all Americans by 2007. Yet, in a little-noticed portion of its budget, the Administration urges Congress to enact a new tax, euphemistically described as a "user fee" on unauctioned spectrum licenses that give holders the right to transmit radio signals. It is hard to discern precisely what is intended by this obscure proposal, but within 24 hours of its release the White House said it had no intention of taxing Wi-Fi services that operate in unlicensed spectrum. But with the federal government facing huge budget deficits, we remain concerned that the Administration and Congress will be tempted to tax something that today is made available for free: namely, the spectrum in which Wi-Fi devices operate. Short of a law banning municipal broadband networks, it's hard to imagine something so inimical to competition and achieving universal access for all Americans.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2006/tc20060217_684364.htm