“Consumers who use wireless or Internet-based telephones could see their bills rise, as the U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved Wednesday a new plan for funding phone service subsidies.

The FCC ordered Internet telephone services like Vonage Holdings Corp. to contribute part of their revenue into the Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes phone service to rural and low-income areas as well as communications services and Internet access for schools, hospitals and libraries.

Under the plan adopted by the FCC commissioners, providers of Internet telephone service, known as Voice over Internet Protocol, or VOIP, would have to pay about 7 percent of their revenue into the fund under the current contribution factor.”

Vonage spokeswoman Brooke Schulz said the FCC’s decision would add a $1 fee to a typical customer’s $25 monthly bill in The Washington Post article Internet Phone Firms Must Pay Subsidy. However, even as taxes continue to rise the price of VOIP internet phone service is falling.

“The prices are going to be controlled by the market, and both marketplaces are highly competitive,” said Eric Rabe, spokesman for Verizon. “The reality is, our voice over IP service has gone from $35 to $25 over the last six months, and the prices are headed in that direction, not up.”

Podcasts are audio files you can download to your computer and even load onto your portable mp3 players like the Apple Ipod. If you can imagine a topic there is probably a podcast available. For instance, you can download a few retirement planning podcasts from Ameriprise Retirement Services to Wine Tasting radio from GrapeRadio.com and everything in between.

If you like to follow the news you can access the New York Times podcasts, with several daily and weekly podcasts, or enjoy the archives and daily podcasts from NPR, with links to podcasts from their daily programs, as well as special reports and other quality programming.
You can find giant libraries of links to podcasts at podcast directories such as the the Podcasting News Podcast Directory , Podcast.net’s Podcast Directory , or Indiepodder.com’s Podcast Directory, a community site dedicated to producing programming and applications for the podcasting community.

“A user buys a $250 Slingbox and connects it to either the cable or satellite set-top box. The television signal that normally goes to the TV is channeled instead through the owner’s Internet router and is streamed to a laptop or a mobile device equipped with the Slingbox software.”

A Sample of the cellphones that support SlingPlayer Mobile :

Verizon Palm Treo 700

Sprint PPC-6700 ($449.99)

Verizon XV6700

T-Mobile MDA

Cingular 8125

Nextel i930

T-Mobile SDA handset

In MSNBC’s Live TV hits the road on your cell phone, reviewer Gary Krakow recommends the SlingPlayer Mobile highly.

“Slingbox is a terrific device.  Their new mobile software for cell phones is terrific.  Once you have it, you’ll wonder why everyone else doesn’t.

If you were on the fence about buying a Slingbox, now is the time. For the next month or so you get the mobile software for free. That’s like getting a $50 rebate on the Slingbox itself. I can tell you from experience that you’ll be getting yourself into a win-win situation.”

Competition between the services is growing too, and the incentives the PC-to-phone companies offer to new users are getting good. Lycos is offering free calls, as well as a free US telephone number for incoming calls, simply for signing up for promotions from advertisers and viewing banner ads, while Jajah is offering international calls for less than 2 cents a minute between US and Europe.

I was in New Orleans in December visiting a friend who has a laptop but can’t get his home wired for the internet due to delays after Hurricane Katrina. Since his laptop has an Intel Centrino processor, he is able to access the internet from a selection of WiFi hotspots downtown. We found a nice spot outside a coffee shop near the French Quarter and logged on to get our email and visit some websites.

New WiFi hotspots are popping up everyday around the world, and according to a new report from JiWire there are over 100,000 WiFi Hotspots worldwide now. I have found a few WiFi directory sites that have updated lists of the addresses and the wireless network providers available. Each of these hotspot directories has information that can be useful, so if you are having trouble finding WiFi hotspots on one directory site try the others.

WiFinder (I think Mexico will be surprised to find out it’s in South America, according to WiFinder )

WiFi Hotspot List

JiWire WiFi Hotspot Directory