This is a hoax. There are a number of articles at regarding the hoax at <A HREF="http://www.house.gov/">United States House of Representatives - 106th Congress </A> http://www.house.gov/ Choose search and enter Bill 602P or just 602P (what I did). Here's one of them: Internet Access and Email Charge Hoax "The rumored proposal to impose an access fee or long charges on Internet access first began on Usenet newsgroups a decade ago. Back then, it was called "the modem tax"--a rumor that the Federal Communications Commission was considering a surcharge on the use of modems over phone lines. But as 1998 merged into 1999, a new wrinkle on the old formula began hitting mailboxes. This time, a bill was before Congress (whether it was the House or Senate was never clarified) that would impose on dial-up access to the Internet, a charge equivalent to that of a long distance call. This particular scare was based on a half-truth. There was an FCC vote on the table for the end of January, attempting to make sense of the regulations concerning deregulation of phone companies and reciprocal payments between local phone companies and their competitors. And part of this debate covered whether an Internet access call should be considered local or long distance. The FCC vote was delayed, as a result of the response this hoax received. The FCC finally voted on the Internet access issue on February 25, 1999. After the vote, the disinformation continued. News sources as diverse and otherwise reliable as Infoworld and Dan Rather led the public to believe that the FCC declaration, "Internet traffic is jurisdictionally mixed and appears to be largely interstate in nature," could mean pay-per-minute access. But the FCC's official release was unequivocal: "...the decision preserves the rule that exempts the Internet and other information services from interstate access charges. This means that those consumers who continue to access the Internet by dialing a seven-digit number will not incur long distance charges when they do so." The fact sheet distributed by the FCC, which should answer any questions you may have can be found at: http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Factsheets/nominute.html. Other hoaxes deal with long distance charges or postage fees for sending an email. The most recent hoax deals with the United States Postal Service proposing a charge for sending emails to make up for lost revenue. The message originated in Canada and states that Canada Post hopes to earn $23 million (CDN) annually through the tax. The message claimed that Canada Post and the federal government were conspiring to quietly push the bill through procedures and into law. The US version of the rumor claims that the US government wants to recoup on $230 million, 10 times the original reported amount. Likewise the US version of the hoax reads that Republican Congressman Tony Schnell (There is NO Member of Congress by that name) is looking into the idea of charging an extra $20 to $40 per month as an ISP tax. Additional evidence that this is a hoax is that House and Senate bill numbers begin with H.R. or S. and not in a suffix letter as in 602p. The US Postal Service has an announcement on its home page titled "E-Mail Rumor Completely Untrue," which states, "The US Postal Service has no authority to surcharge e-mail messages sent over the Internet, nor would it support such legislation." The full USPS statement can be found at www.usps.gov. For additional information about hoaxes on the Internet you can visit http://urbanlegends.miningco.com and click on the Current Net Hoaxes link. As your Representative, I am very aware that many residents of the Seventh District rely on the Internet to conduct business and research, and to communicate to a broad spectrum of agencies, companies and people. So, you may be pleased to know that I am an original cosponsor of H.R. 1291, which would prohibit the FCC from imposing access charges for Internet access. Please rest assured that during the 106th Congress, I will continue to fight for lower taxes, less government spending, and less government interference in our daily lives."