Over the past few months, the FCC has gotten progressively more involved with regulating VoIP services and providers.

As this has occurred, many providers have opened debates that question the validity of regulation based on how service is defined. Chief among these is AT&T.

Related: Get started with VOIP service today

Earlier this year, AT&T claimed to have not fit the requirements needed to be considered a telecommunications carrier.  The provider instead clung to the state-based American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) model—which they helped create—that defines Internet as an “informative service” as opposed to a telecommunications service. As a result, AT&T was able to continue on unchecked, and free of regulation. Read the full entry

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As of the beginning of this year, mobile held 10% of US consumers’ media time, but held only 1% of total online ad revenue (BIA Kelsey).

Part of the reason was that Google Adwords – the largest purveyor of online advertisements – originally required advertisers to create a different campaign for each parameter they wished to bid for, such as time of day, location, and type of device.

This resulted in a few advertisers running hundreds or thousands of concurrent campaigns in order to reach both online and mobile customers. Many advertisers chose not to bother creating multiple campaigns just to target the mobile marketplace. As such, there was a low demand for mobile ad inventory as compared to online ads. Read the full entry

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Taking the home business deduction on your taxes used to be a messy process, but recent updates to the IRS tax code have made the process much easier.

Starting in 2013, you can take a much simpler, “safe harbor” option for claiming your home office space on your personal taxes.

What Happened

According to the IRS, 3.4 million people took the home business deduction in 2010. However, a study by the National Association for the Self-Employed found that only 58% of those who qualify for the deduction end up taking it. Read the full entry

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NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association and the Council for Electronic Billing and Payment (CEBT) presented a new set of QR code guidelines on January 24, 2013. The QR Encoding for Consumer Bill Pay Guidelines specifically address the use of QR codes in consumer bill payment.

These codes are printed on paper invoices and bills to encourage consumers to pay via mobile billing, as opposed to checks or other mailed payments. Read the full entry

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