FCC chairman for taxing VoIP, allowing two-tiered Internet

Shortly after a large gathering of telco executives sang "Happy Birthday" to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, he said that taxing VoIP systems was a good idea. Applause. The idea is one predecessor Powell was vehemently against. That's good news for telcos that want VoIP providers to have to deal with taxes, too, and beef up those cheap rates. Shortly before blowing out his candles, the chairman also said he saw no reason to push for network neutrality rules for the Internet. BellSouth and AT&T said they want to give preferential treatment to their own voice and IPTV services while charging other ISPs and sites like Google and Yahoo! for space on the premium high-speed fiber-optic networks they're building. As some have suggested, this could explain Google buying all that dark fiber. The company may be looking to have a network of its own to avoid this whole mess.

For more on chairman Martin's birthday wishes:
- check out this article in Broadband Reports
- and this article from CNET