FCC Cheif Martin is all for taxing VOIP services. Nevermind that they have the potential to carry phone service to rural areas for far less than it costs to run individual data lines *and* phonelines out to each subscriber.

That assumption is made on the basis that whatever technology works best for bridging the last leg of the IP packets journey will be used. So there’s no need to have a phoneline, per-say, but you would simply use whatever wired or wireless technology is feasible.

My problem with things like the massive telephone subsidizing fund is that it encourages graft, corruption, and market fixing. There’s absolutely no incentive to make low-cost workable solutions while everyone is forced to pay for the broken system.