Fee For Satellite Use

[+hamgran]

A couple of people have asked me if the U.S. government will ever start charging the general public for the use of their satellites (to obtain waypoints with GPSrs.) While the idea seems pretty farfetched to me (a massive undertaking - how would it be controlled?) it has been pointed out to me that companies do it with TV satellite signals.

What are your thoughts on this, fellow geocachers?

- hamgran

[+Lazyboy & Mitey Mite]

A geocaching tax. Imagine having to unscramble the newly scrambled satellite signals.

 

Naw, won't happen, easier to tax other things.

[+Clyde1140]

Not likely to happen.

 

For one, it would mean a huge reconfiguration of all the GPSr's out there to ones that would "decode" the new signals. The public outcry when everyones GPSr, Onstar etc quit working would be huge, and we wont even get started on the impact on the aviation users, or the fact that the military uses hundreds of thousands of civilian GPSr's.

Edited March 8, 2004 by Clyde1140

[+JohnnyVegas]

They would be more likely to try and tax internet use, more people us the internet than go one line.

[ju66l3r]

Ok, not likely (see: tax the internet).

 

BUT, if they were to do so, some of you aren't thinking correctly. This would simply be a mark-up that you'd pay on the GPSr. Any older GPSrs will still work and get away "free" since they had already been bought, but new GPSrs would cost more because of the Satellite Use Fee attached to them by the government. No encoded signals, no new technology, just an increase in the entry cost to be collected by the government.

 

Still highly unlikely.

[+Team Tigger International]

I may be wrong here, but I thought we already do pay for it? Our tax dollars (I'm sure us Canadians put money in the pot too) paid for the R&D, the launchs etc. This isn't the same as TV which is a commercial venture. I suppose if someone (Microsoft?) were to setup a private GPS network, then we'd be expected to pay.

 

Wulf

[+cachew nut]

It depends on who is running the goverment.

[dsandbro]

I may be wrong here, but I thought we already do pay for it? Our tax dollars (I'm sure us Canadians put money in the pot too) paid for the R&D, the launchs etc. This isn't the same as TV which is a commercial venture. I suppose if someone (Microsoft?) were to setup a private GPS network, then we'd be expected to pay.

 

Wulf

 

LOL

 

If Microsoft ran GPS or geocaching?

 

Your GPSr would crash as soon as you got within 100 yards of the cache.

 

Caches could only be found with only certain brands of GPSr.

 

You would be required to buy a new GPSr every two years.

 

To get any additional clues you would have to call a phone number, give a credit card number, then be put on hold for two hours, only to be told they cannot help you.

[+wildearth2001]

I may be wrong here, but I thought we already do pay for it?  Our tax dollars (I'm sure us Canadians put money in the pot too) paid for the R&D, the launchs etc.  This isn't the same as TV which is a commercial venture.  I suppose if someone (Microsoft?) were to setup a private GPS network, then we'd be expected to pay.

 

Wulf

 

LOL

 

If Microsoft ran GPS or geocaching?

 

Your GPSr would crash as soon as you got within 100 yards of the cache.

 

Caches could only be found with only certain brands of GPSr.

 

You would be required to buy a new GPSr every two years.

 

To get any additional clues you would have to call a phone number, give a credit card number, then be put on hold for two hours, only to be told they cannot help you.

Yeah thats about how I see it happening.

 

As for being charged to use the sats...Never happen. It would be far to much work to charge for use. Besides most of the GPS used by the military are regular civian units. From what I have heard the eTrex yellow and the Legend are the most popular with the military. The gov might eventually charge a small tax on the purchase of a new unit.

[Kerry.]

No, U.S policy is to continue providing GPS service free of direct user fees to civil users worldwide and this has been the policy since 1983.

 

However this revenue generation is one issue with the Interoperability issues of a free open system (such as GPS) with a fee-based encrypted system, which Galileo being a "private" commercial system will charge for some of its services to the civil community.

 

Cheers, Kerry.

Edited March 8, 2004 by Kerry.

[dsandbro]

Let's be fair.

 

The U.S. taxpayers already paid for the system. The fairest method would be to tax non-U.S. users.

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

Fair??

What is that??

 

We have already(tax payers)paid for the system.

We should be able(Goverment)People of, for, and by to use it unfettered.

 

It is like buying a new car,and being told you can only drive it 1 day a week and on the 4th Sunday of every month.

 

Give me a break.

[+Cache Viking]

I may be wrong here, but I thought we already do pay for it?  Our tax dollars (I'm sure us Canadians put money in the pot too) paid for the R&D, the launchs etc.  This isn't the same as TV which is a commercial venture.  I suppose if someone (Microsoft?) were to setup a private GPS network, then we'd be expected to pay.

 

Wulf

 

LOL

 

If Microsoft ran GPS or geocaching?

 

Your GPSr would crash as soon as you got within 100 yards of the cache.

 

Caches could only be found with only certain brands of GPSr.

 

You would be required to buy a new GPSr every two years.

 

To get any additional clues you would have to call a phone number, give a credit card number, then be put on hold for two hours, only to be told they cannot help you.

And you would have three new buttons across the bottom that would require constant use. Crl - Alt - Delete

[Kerry.]

Let's be fair.

 

The U.S. taxpayers already paid for the system.  The fairest method would be to tax non-U.S. users.

Yes and thankyou very much for that As for non US users paying well that's what's called unfair trade tarrifs, isn't it

 

NO actually there's more spin-offs from GPS technology to the economy etc especially in the civil sector, which outstrips military expenditure/requirements by a very large factor.

 

Cheers, Kerry.

Edited March 9, 2004 by Kerry.

[+rickrich]

"Thank God it was the US which invented GPS and not Britain, otherwise

our GPSRs would be coin-in-the-slot machines."  -- Chris Malcolm

[+DamOTclese]

Far too many entities use GPS for other things and the list is growing. Laptops are coming out with GPS built into them so that if they're stolen and then plugged into the Internet, they can report their IP addresses to a central repository so they can be recovered. Conceivably that could bring millions of GPS-using laptops or other portables into the realm of who uses GPS.

 

And of course eventually every automobil and airplane will have a variety of GPS produces in them.

 

Naw, it doesn't seem reasonable. Our taxes already pay for these satellites -- and pay for the other space based products the fascists use against other nations, of course.

[+EScout]

The US government decided to use our taxes to set up this system to benefit the military and now the private economy. It taxes everyone for this. What would actually be more fair is for there to be a tax on hardware. This way the non-direct users would not be subsidizing the direct users of GPS.

As for fascists using the system, there is nothing to stop them. There are several governments such as on the African continent that may therefore benefit.