FCC backs away from Internet tax

Consumers already pay a fee on their landline and wireless phone bills to support the FCC’s Universal Service Fund, which aims to provide phone service to everyone in the country, even if they live in remote areas.

Last year, the FCC overhauled a $4.5 billion portion of the Universal Service Fund and converted it into a broadband Internet subsidy, called the Connect America Fund. The new fund aims to subsidize the construction of high-speed Internet networks to the estimated 19 million Americans who currently lack access.

But the money for the new Internet subsidy is still coming from the fees on phone bills.

And in recent years, with more people sending emails and text messages instead of making long-distance phone calls, the money flowing into the program has begun to dry up.