Communications

By directing its energies toward tying up its competitors' time and resources in endless court battles, Apple mires the industry in litigious quicksand, diverts resources from innovation, and deprives consumers of new products and services.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed HB-2453 into law Friday, letting Chicago increase its monthly 911 charges on wireline, wireless and prepaid cellphones.  The measure, which took effect immediately, has come under attack from free-market groups like the Institute for Policy Innovation, which said the increase could produce more than 911 needs and be used for other purposes like bolstering the city's pension fund.

By Monday Illinois Governor Quinn must approve or deny a scheme that may well leave him in a similar, if less dramatic, situation as Nero.

The Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (HR-3086) and the Internet Tax Freedom Forever Act (S-1431) need to pass Congress before the end of the current congressional session, said an Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) blog post Thursday.

It is no secret that U.S. cable TV operators are  jumping into Wi-Fi big time, and one industry executive is forecasting they could collectively deploy and run half a million Wi-Fi hotspots in the near future. The prediction came from David Don, Comcast's executive director-regulatory and public affairs, at the IPI Communications Summit.

Online sales tax reform may get all the attention, but there is another complex network of Internet-centric taxes that backers of reform say should be re-examined as well.

States facing Medicaid challenges should integrate mobile phones and other existing technologies to increase access to care, lower costs and improve health care quality for Medicaid beneficiaries, says a new IPI publication, “Reforming Medicaid with Technology.” 

Congress has a clear choice: Make complete and permanent the ban on Internet access and multiple or discriminatory taxes online, encouraging broadband access and e-commerce, or turn away from that national priority and allow the pro-tax thugs the chance to loot our digital future.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) today urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case that will help determine whether there are, in fact, constitutional protections from the ability of states to impose tax burdens on other states. Task Force Co-Chairman Bartlett Cleland of the Institute for Policy Innovation said, "The threat to the commercial Internet and to our constitutional rights from extraterritorial assertions of power by the government cannot be overstated. The Supreme Court needs to hear this case immediately to reaffirm the physical presence rule to protect our rights and to ensure the Internet continues to grow and improve human welfare."

ALEC wants to provide ideas of how legislators can act next, said task force private-sector Chairman Bartlett Cleland, IPI policy counsel. "It is critically important for the future of healthcare that state legislators start understanding what they can do and start to act, so we can drive down healthcare costs and get healthcare to more people."