FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski should overhaul the Universal Service Fund’s...
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski should overhaul the Universal Service Fund’s Lifeline program “only if such reform translates as eliminating the USF altogether,” said Heartland Institute scholar Bruce Edward Walker Tuesday. The draft Lifeline reform order, expected to have circulated late…
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Tuesday, has been met with some ambivalence (CD Jan 10 p1). Late Tuesday, the commission said a Lifeline and Link Up reform order and rulemaking notice is tentatively scheduled for a vote at the Jan. 31 meeting. Walker meanwhile said universal service has reached “97 percent of the population, a fact reported in the Federal Communications Commission’s own research that seems to elude the chairman.” Customers are already paying too much in USF fees, Walker said. “Government fees account for 15 percent of customers’ regular service charges on average, which is more than double the sales tax levied in most states. Additionally, 59 cents of each USF dollar collected from users’ bills isn’t appropriated to build out and connections but to cover the administrative costs of perpetuating a completely unnecessary bureaucracy."