Global Policy Forum - Social and Economic Policy
Access to the Network Society
Who is in the Loop and on the Map
UNDP Human Development Report
1999
There is an urgent need to find the resources to fund the global communications revolution-to ensure that it is truly global. One proposal is a "bit tax" - a very small tax on the amount of data sent through the Internet. The costs for users would be negligible; sending 100 emails a day, each containing a 10-kilobyte document (a very long one), would raise a tax of just 1 cent. Yet with email booming worldwide, the total would be substantial. In Belgium in 1998, such a tax would have yielded $10 billion. Globally in 1996, it would have yielded$70 billion - more than total official development assistance that year.
How quickly are different countries preparing for global communications? Many factors are involved, and the race to join the information society ahs set off at a fast pace. It will determine many of the winners and losers in the globalized world.
Page 66.
More Information on Email Taxes
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted
material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by
the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material
without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving
the included information for research and educational purposes. We
believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material
as provided for in 17 U.S.C ß 107. If you wish to use copyrighted
material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair
use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
