Want to pay more for your cellphone bill? Obama's got your back!, Obama is a asswipe Options

[illriginal]

Obama Proposes New Wireless Spectrum Fee

Under President Obama's budget submitted to lawmakers, wireless carriers such as Verizon, AT&T and Sprint would be hit with huge fees for the right to hold a spectrum license. The fee per carrier would be $50 million this year and eventually rise to $500 million per carrier, per year within a decade. Users fear carriers will add the new fee to phone bills.

The Obama administration Feb. 26 proposed to tax wireless carriers as much as $550 million per year for the right to hold a spectrum license. The fee would be in addition to the billions carriers have already paid in spectrum auctions held by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission).

Under the budget outline provided by the Obama administration, the new fees would be used to help reduce the $1.7 trillion national deficit. The proposal before Congress would charge carriers like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint $50 million this year. The fee per carrier would jump to $200 million in 2010 and eventually rise to $550 million by 2019.

According to the OMB (Office of Management and Budget), the fees would generate $4.8 billion over the next 10 years.

Alright one more negative proposal like this coming from Obama and I will lose all support of Obama.

[illriginal]

I won't be surprised that the taxes on cigarettes and soda goes up either, that won't effect my house hold but it'll surely piss me off.

But that money would go to good use with Obama in office? We won't be wasting it on war, and we won't be wasting it on medicare (as much as we did with every other president in history :O).

So it would go to good things? I mean really.. it's just an extra $60 a year.. there's just not much you could buy nowadays with $60.. unless you wanna get fat and buy 60 candy bars. Maybe 1 load of gas :P

Those taxes are for the "bail outs".... the bail outs of companies that completely screwed up and now we have to pay up for their screw ups. Like it was our fault in the first place

And what's an extra $60 a year? The taxes on cell phones? It'll be more like $30-50 more each month.

Don't forget that those cell phone companies are going to want to make profits. And the higher the taxes the more they're gonna want for their own pocket.

[brooklyneast05]

And what's an extra $60 a year? The taxes on cell phones? It'll be more like $30-50 more each month.

what math brought you to this conclusion that each user would be paying 30-50 dollars more a month

[brooklyneast05]

what math brought you to this conclusion that each user would be paying 30-50 dollars more a month

i said what MATH, what math did you use to get the numbers. i don't care if it's 20, 30, 40, 50 whatever, i'm asking what math did you use to get whatever number you're saying.

[illriginal]

i said what MATH, what math did you use to get the numbers. i don't care if it's 30, 40, 50 whatever, i'm asking what math did you use to get whatever number you're saying.

I don't have the math because each cell phone company has different prices at different rates with different packages, it's too much of a variable for me to sit there and try to calculate the whole thing... Think about it though, they were being hit with 50 million in taxes, now they're aiming to tax cell phone companies up to $550 million (500 million more dollars) within the next few years.

[mipadi]

I don't have the math because each cell phone company has different prices at different rates with different packages, it's too much of a variable for me to sit there and try to calculate the whole thing... Think about it though, they were being hit with 50 million in taxes, now they're aiming to tax cell phone companies up to $550 million (500 million more dollars) within the next few years.

$550 million sounds like a lot, but as of 2005, the US had 201 million cell phone subscribers [1]; I'm guessing that number has gone up since 2005, but let's just use the figure 201 million for the purposes of discussion. Assuming the cost of the tax is applied equally to each user, that's only $2.74 per user per year.

Now, there are a lot of factors to consider here. Probably users will be charged unequally, and the cell phone companies might use this as an excuse to charge more than just the cost of the tax. But still, I really don't see that translating to "$20-$35 per month" -- that's $240-$420 per year, which is 87x-153x the actual cost of the tax. Aside from the math, simple economics says that cell phone providers would lose customers if prices suddenly jumped by $20-$35 a month. I don't think cell phone service is an inelastic good.

[illriginal]

$550 million sounds like a lot, but as of 2005, the US had 201 million cell phone subscribers [1]; I'm guessing that number has gone up since 2005, but let's just use the figure 201 million for the purposes of discussion. Assuming the cost of the tax is applied equally to each user, that's only $2.74 per user per year.

Now, there are a lot of factors to consider here. Probably users will be charged unequally, and the cell phone companies might use this as an excuse to charge more than just the cost of the tax. But still, I really don't see that translating to "$20-$35 per month" -- that's $240-$420 per year, which is 87x-153x the actual cost of the tax. Aside from the math, simple economics says that cell phone providers would lose customers if prices suddenly jumped by $20-$35 a month. I don't think cell phone service is an inelastic good.

I totally agree.. but then again, look at how many Americans are leaving the U.S. as of now because of the economic issues. I could only imagine that cell phone companies are gonna be forced to up their prices which will actually cause a lot of their customers to look for other providers or to simply stop using cell phones. Cell phone companies are gonna be stuck between a rock and a hard place.

And I shouldn't have thrown a number out there... I was just throwing a random assumed number out there for how much more customers will be paying.