PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE: Allegheny County cellphone users pay about 19.95 percent of their bills in federal, state and local taxes each month, the eighth-highest combined wireless tax rate in a country where the Pew Research Center reports nine in 10 adults own cellphones…
Most of the taxes and fees are specific to Pennsylvania, but nearly 6 percent went toward the federal Universal Service Fund, which netted $8.7 billion in 2012 to increase wireless access in rural areas, schools and libraries…
The amount could increase under a proposal by President Obama to expand high-speed Internet to 99 percent of schools, through the E-Rate subsidy program, one of four USF programs and the government’s largest educational technology fund with a cap of $2.38 billion… (more)
