Thanks to oddcrap who posted this in BPN for the heads up.
President Bush signed a bill that renews a ban on Internet access taxes on Friday amid praise from lawmakers and trade groups who said the measure would encourage more people to sign up for high-speed broadband service.
Bush said repeatedly on the campaign trail this year that a ban on access taxes is crucial to reach his goal of universal broadband access by 2007, enabling more Internet users to download video, music and other bandwidth-intensive content.
The ban on access taxes, in place since 1998, expired more than a year ago when congressional lawmakers could not agree whether to make it permanent or merely extend it for three years.
Backers at the time warned that Internet use could suffer if tax-happy states imposed new surcharges on the monthly fees that Internet providers.
No states or local governments imposed new Internet taxes during the year the ban was not in effect.
News source: Reuters
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