Communications Daily is a service of Warren Communications News.
Subscriber Login

Federal Universal Service Fund

The FCC's Universal Service Fund (USF) was created by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to fund programs designed to provide universal telecommunications access to all U.S. citizens. All telecommunications providers are required to contribute a percentage of their end-user revenues to the Fund, which the FCC allocates for four core programs: 1. Connect America Fund, which subsidizes telecom providers for the increased costs of offering services to customers in rural and remote areas 2. Lifeline, which directly subsidizes low-income households to help pay for the cost of phone and internet service 3. Rural Health Care, which subsidizes health care providers to offer broadband telehealth services that can connect rural patients and providers with specialists located farther away 4. E-Rate, which subsidizes rural and low-income schools and libraries for internet and telecommunications costs The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) administers the USF on behalf of the FCC, but requires Congressional approval for its actions. Many states also operate their own universal service funds, which operate independently from the federal program.

to
articlessource documents
Refine Trend Search
Clear Terms

Search Primer

Term list: Separate terms with spaces, not commas or semicolons.

Multi-word term: Place inside quotes to ensure an exact match (e.g. "universal service fund").

Acronyms: Use all capital letters to ensure the search is not looking for that letter sequence instead.(e.g. NTIA).

Required term: If a term must be included in any resulting articles, prefix it with a plus sign (e.g., "FCC chairman" +Pai).

Excluded term: If a term should be excluded from any articles being found, prefix it with a minus sign (e.g., FCC -Carr).

Simplest form: Use the simplest form of a term (e.g. "satellite" instead of "satellites" or "impose" instead of "imposed").

AT&T said it was ‘encouraged’ that FCC shortened lag time between...
March 16, 2001 |Miscellaneous

AT&T said it was “encouraged” that FCC shortened lag time between carrier’s accrual of revenues and assessment of its Universal Service Fund (USF) contribution (CD March 15 p5). However, that won’t solve problem entirely, carrier said. AT&T said it looked forward to participating in FCC’s upcoming proceeding to consider ways to simplify entire USF cost recovery process and eliminate lag entirely.

FCC denied petition by Operator Communications (Oncor) for forbea...
February 14, 2001 |Miscellaneous

FCC denied petition by Operator Communications (Oncor) for forbearance of rule requiring that contributions to federal universal service fund be based on carrier revenue from prior year. Oncor contended that basing contributions on prior-year revenue harmed carriers with declining revenue. It asked FCC to forbear from assessing revenues for years 1998-2000 and then reassess contribution based on actual revenue for those years. Commission said requested action would give unfair advantage to carriers with declining revenue. FCC Comr. Furchtgott-Roth issued statement agreeing with FCC’s denial but emphasizing that problem raised by Oncor was serious: “Because carriers contribute to the universal service fund based on the prior year’s revenues, those carriers whose revenues have declined find themselves paying a higher percentage of their current revenues… than do carriers with stable or increasing revenues.” He said end-user surcharges could be “promising solution.”

Topics:Federal Communications Commission (FCC)