FCC set to reform Universal Service Fund to move from telephone to broadband focused

 

FCC Votes Unanimously To Launch USF Reform [Multichannel News]

Bringing us into the 21st Century, the FCC voted today to move forward with Universal Service Reform.

The fund was established to help the deployment of universal telecommunications service in sparsely populated rural America where the cost of bringing voice telephony was deemed too expensive unless subsidized by the Federal government. 

Even to this date, the fund focuses almost entirely on phone service even though dial tone is available to virtually all of the nation.

As part of last year’s National Broadband Plan, the FCC laid out a course to migrate the Universal Service Fund (USF) from phone to broadband. Today, the FCC voted unanimously to approve the change.

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association has openly welcomed the FCC’s reform and approved of the path the agency has established. NCTA Vice President Jim Assey stated that the NCTA was pleased that the FCC was getting serious about reform, and was also satisfied with the greater accountability and fiscal responsibility in the proposal. The FCC’s plan includes new required disclosures from recipients of the fund. The plan also includes limiting deployment to areas where a free market solution does not exist.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said that USF reform will come in two stages with the first stage being changes and reductions to the payment structure between companies for interconnection, followed by consolidating existing funds into the new broadband fund, dubbed the Connect America Fund.

Comments

[Nate Hiatt]

So the cable industry will gladly take the FCC's $$$, but then turn around and sue them claiming the FCC does not have the authority to regulate them.