According to The Register, President Obama’s 2010 budget includes a new yearly spectrum license fee of $200 million dollars; that’s four times the current fee of $50 million dollars, and the stated plan is to increase fees incrementally to $550 million dollars a year by 2020.  Wireless carriers must pay this fee each year in order to use the spectrum for wireless devices – read: cell phones.

We feel wireless carriers overcharge for their many of their services, so why shouldn’t we be happy the Feds are stickin’ it right back to ‘em?  Because businesses don’t pay taxes out of pocket, they simply increase the amount they charge customers for goods and services to recover the amount they’re forced to pay.  Which means we can look forward to increasingly higher wireless bills once (and if) this change goes into effect, whether we bring home $18,000 a year or $250,000.

Bottom line: if a company you do business with (for power, food, gasoline, phone service, travel, etc.) has its taxes raised, you’ll be the one paying for it.

via Engadget Mobile