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Japan to Tax All Unlicensed Wireless Devices?
Chicken Ranch writes "It's not just about wireless networking. This tax would apply to a range of devices from WLAN to RFID to Cordless Phones to Remote Control Cars. Basically, if it operates in an unlicensed band, the government wants a tribute. So would they still call it an 'unlicensed' band?"
There's no mention of RFIDs which in any case aren't transmitters in the sense of the proposal. They could possibly tax the readers, but then that would mean they'd have to also tax in-store anti-theft devices. Japanese politics being what it is, there's no way I'll risk making any sort of prediction.
Dead right. Here in the UK we have had a continuous recent history of money-grab tax proposals. We call them 'stealth taxes' over here.
They are good for politicians in two ways. First, they raise funds almost invisibly - tech companies are always cutting the cost of their kit, and this just means the cost goes down a little slower, so there are no complaints from the consumer.
Second, you need a bunch of administrators to collect the tax. These people owe their living to the tax and the government, so they aren't going to vote against it. So you start to build a bunch of captive voters, who will vote for you come what may.
Once you get more than 20% or so of your working population living off the government, there's no way in hell of backing out. Thatcher managed to do it a bit - that's why she's still so hated by large sections of the community.
In France, if you want to use a wireless technoology, the manufacturer (or group of them) have to pay for a license to gain the right to use a certain band of frequence in certain way up to a certain transmission power. There are a few bands where anyone can do anything without the need of a license but at very low power, but some other bands are very expensive (TV, GSM...).
Broadcast anything without license and you risk jail sentence, in particular if you interfere with commercial or military frequencies.
Besides, it not an "unlicensed band" anyway - it's class licensed. Any equipment which operates in those bands has to meet certain stringent requirements with regards to maximum power, etc, in order to be operated without an operator's licence (which is why things like boosting your WiFi ERP beyond certain limits through the use of high gain antennas, etc, is illegal).
If, to take one example, the 2.4GHz band was truly unlicensed, your local regulatory authority couldn't stop you from hooking up a waveguide and external antenna to the magnetron of your microwave oven and splattering all the WiFi in the neighbourhood. But, because all such equipment is class licenced, you'd be operating it outside the conditions of the equipment license and they'll in fact come down on you like a ton of bricks...
What part of "a well regulated militia" do you not understand?
Does this tax apply per device? What if you have a WSN consisting of hundreds of wireless sensor nodes?
As an aside, for some reason I'm not yet aware of the Japanese basically do not use Bluetooth headsets at all. It's rather weird.