Numbers-Based USF Poses Financial, Social Repercussions for Colleges

Colleges can have thousands of phone numbers for use in faculty buildings and student dorms. A numbers-based system is expected to collect $0.93 to $1.25 monthly per number, according to FCC estimates. The largest schools’ USF contributions could rise more than tenfold; the smallest, more than 37-fold, Semer said. Washington State University, with 22,000 numbers, now gives USF about $15,200 per month, a sum that would rise to $27,500 under the plan, said Dave Ostrom, Communications and Network Services director. The University of Northern Iowa, now paying about $200 per month into the USF, could pay $16,375 for its 13,100 numbers, said Randal Hayes, the school’s telecommunications administrator.

Colleges likely would not pass USF costs onto students by hiking tuition or other fees because “they are under so much pressure not to,” she said. And that might not be logical, since at most schools faculty numbers significantly outnumber those for students, she added, with college representatives agreeing. Northern Iowa recently killed on- campus students’ long-distance service, so charging them more for phone service is not a popular option, Hayes said. Ostrom agreed: “We can’t just take it out on the students.”

Cutting telephone numbers would be schools’ likely response to a numbers-based USF, Semer said. But there could be a way to keep the phones, she said. More than 75 percent of colleges use Private Branch Exchange (PBX) telephone systems able to be reconfigured to a business-like central switchboard design in which a few main numbers link to phones by extensions, she said, warning that it may not be possible to alter the remaining non-PBX systems to do that. Washington State, which uses a PBX system, probably would do as Semer suggested to “shed as many [numbers] as possible,” Ostrom said, recommending consumers invest in automatic dialer maker stocks. To pay the new USF fees, Northern Iowa near-term would use funds reserved for infrastructure and technology improvements, but removing phones would be at the top of discussion, he said. The school might look into ways to reconfigure its PBX to an extensions system, he said.

PBX reconfiguration could affect campus life, Semer said. Phone numbers help “maintain campus culture,” she said. Losing numbers would hurt service and school image, Ostrom said. If it means dealing with an operator, people may avoid calling campus numbers, he said. That could hurt faculty members’ ability to “do their jobs,” Hayes said. There are also safety concerns. E-911 works better with direct dorm numbers, Semer said. And services like suicide counseling could be hampered if callers have to go through an operator, Ostrom said.

Mass college-number removal could hurt USF receipts, said Hayes. Using a numbers-based model, the FCC stands at first to collect a lot of money, but if schools drop phone numbers, the revenue stream will dry up, he said. “There’s bound to be a recoil.”

ACUTA has two potential solutions the FCC could use to ease colleges’ dilemma, Semer said. The FCC could collect on a per-trunk basis, targeting the communications path between network switching systems, or it could adopt a hybrid system maintaining a revenue-based approach for colleges. The FCC declined to comment on the college issue, but said it will listen to public comment on whatever model it proposes. The proposed USF cap and other distribution issues are on the agency’s “front burner,” and it’s hard to say when the FCC will act on contributions, an official said. Hayes worries about the college impact, but believes the “5,000-piece” USF needs reform, he said. “Some areas need to be fixed … no matter what happens,” he said.