Techie News Service
05-20-2004, 06:03 AM
<![CDATA[Add New York to the list of greedy states along with California, Florida and Minnesota that want to get as much money out of VoIP providers as possible by declaring them phone companies. New York has become the latest state <a href="http://news.com.com/New York classifies Vonage as phone company/2100-7352_3-5216639.html">to declare Vonage a phone company that they can now regulate</a>. This is a backwards step that is likely to slow down the acceptance of VoIP. While it may mean that the NY state government can suck a few extra taxes out of people, it will mean slower adoption, which means slower economic growth. Even worse, they're doing this while the FCC has made it clear that they're still reviewing this issue and had told states to leave VoIP providers alone while they come up with a position at the federal level. This is merely a short-term grab at extra tax revenue.
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