Bader’s Bits

It’s just one example of our arcane telecom regs and taxes, but yes, there has been a surcharge on your long distance phone bill for well over 100 years to pay for that war. Now, after losing 6 lawsuits, the Treasury will stop the practice and refund $15 Billion to us. That represents what we’ve paid in the last 3 years, the extent that statute of limitations allow. Look for the refund in your 2007 check.
Read more: TaxProf Blog: Can You Hear Me Now? IRS to Refund $15 Billion of Telephone Taxes to Consumers

Highlighting the tectonic shifts underway in the U.S. telecomm industry, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) announced that U.S. Wireless Subscriber Level Reaches 194.5 Million in 2005 and are expected to Grow to 270 Million by 2009. Geez, according to census.gov, there’s only 298.476,130 folks in the U.S. at the moment. Sounds like market saturation is approaching, no?

On the flip side, the number of access lines in use continues its five year decline, as the cool kids eschew them, and the cablecos and VoIP provide other alternatives. Market research firm eMarketer reports another TIA statistic not included in their press release, that landlines fell to 172 million lines. They predict consumer VoIP usage to increase to over 30 million users by 2010.

These trends will wreak havoc on the telcos business models. There is still real competition in the wireless space, while the landline business is more of an oligopoly with the cablecos. That’s why they’re fighting so hard for regulatory advantage. But the writing’s on the wall. That’s why net neutrality and a healthy relatively deregulated VoIP market are so crucial to moving the nation’s telecommunications services forward.

While on vacation this week in North Carolina, I had the pleasure of joining my son Derek (he’s on the right) in one of his classes taught by the legendary Fred Brooks, author of The Mythical Man Month. So many stories, so little time. Fred has made many contributions to computing, including defining a byte with eight bits (up until then, a word was six bits). Both he and Gene Amdahl argued the issue, and each quit IBM once over the matter, only to rejoin the next day and remain lifelong friends.

The session was great trip down memory lane, as the next generation of computer scientists gleamed insights from us codgers about how to manage their upcoming careers. The best part: I not only don’t embarrass Derek much anymore, but he was willing to trot me out in public. It only took 35 years. I guess there’s still hope for my sixteen year old daughter and me. Just 19 more years to go!