The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Regulatory Bulletin.
TELECOM
IN
A new law in Indiana will prohibit the state or any political subdivision of the state from imposing, assessing, collecting, or attempting to collect a tax on Internet access or the use of Internet access. A tax on Internet access or the use of Internet access is defined as a “tax on Internet access, or any use of Internet access, regardless of whether the tax is imposed on a provider of Internet access or a buyer of Internet access and regardless of the terminology used to describe the tax.” The term does not include a tax levied upon or measured by net income, capital stock, net worth, or property value. The bill defines Internet access as a service that “enables users to connect to the Internet to access content, information, or other services offered over the Internet, without regard to whether the service is referred to telecommunications, communications, transmission, or similar services, and without regard to whether a provider of the service is subject to regulation by the Federal Communications Commission as a common carrier under 47 U.S.C. 201 et seq.” Internet is defined as “the myriad of computer and telecommunications facilities, including equipment and operating software, that comprises the interconnected worldwide network of networks that employ the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (or any predecessor or successor protocols to that protocol) to communicate information of all kinds by wire or radio.” The bill became effective on April 23, 3015.
