Spectrum Fees May Preclude US Low-Cost Cellular 246
theodp writes "Not to apologize for an industry that charges $27,000 to catch a Chicago Bears game, but will the huge spectrum fees charged by the government block the emergence of low-cost cellular service? In the most recent FCC spectrum auction, carriers paid nearly $20 billion to grab a swath of the 700MHz spectrum. And now under President Obama's proposed budget, wireless carriers would be hit with huge annual fees — eventually reaching $550 million per carrier per year — for the right to hold a spectrum license. Critics say the carriers will simply pass these fees through to consumers."
Re:tax in disguise (Score:5, Funny)
No, the big company executives are all going to go get a second job delivering pizzas in the evenings in order to pay for this. They wont pass it to the consumers that would be an excessive tax on the lower class and a drop in the bucket on the rich and upper middle.
Re:Do the math... (Score:4, Funny)
Perhaps in something like water or sewer where nothing changes.
The work crews digging up the road by my house would beg to differ.
Same with the work crews fixing the cellular spectrum outside my window. Oh, wait ...
Re:tax in disguise (Score:4, Funny)
No, the big company executives are all going to go get a second job delivering pizzas in the evenings in order to pay for this
How do you deliver pizzas in a Gulfstream IV? ;)
Really, really fast.
Re:tax in disguise (Score:4, Funny)
Verizon's 2008 operating margin was 17.34%, their return on average equity was 13.93%, neither are particularly stellar or out of line. Exxon and GE are similar, Walmart is lower for margin and higher for return. Basically they are an average Bluechip stock.
Your silly little "facts" and "numbers" have no place in the effort to make excuses for Obama's enlightened budget, please keep them to yourself. Obama says that if we make less than $250k then we won't pay another dime! So we need to make sure these big bad companies pay a fair price for their use of our spectrum...
Re:Georgism 101 (Score:3, Funny)
> Carriers cannot pass on ad valorem taxes like this
On what do you base that?
On the fact that he used a Latin phrase so he must know what he's talking about...