The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill that would suspend any new taxes or fees on wireless services for five years in what some wireless executives say marks a victory for American consumers.
The legislation imposes a five-year moratorium on new wireless taxes and fees imposed by state and local governments.
"Today's House vote is a victory for consumers who each year already pay more than $15 billion in extra wireless taxes and fees," said Peter Davidson, Verizon's senior vice president of federal government relations.
Similar legislation in the U.S. Senate has 12 sponsors, Bloomberg reported, but no hearing date has been set.
Consumers, on average, pay more than 16 percent of their monthly wireless bill in taxes and fees, according to Verizon, which claims that figure is double the average paid in sales tax.
"We need to encourage the development and adoption of wireless broadband, not tax it out of existence," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat who was one of the bill's sponsors.
