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Author: Daniel Lyons
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 11
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Book Description
The federal Universal Service Fund program is in crisis. This observation is neither exaggerated nor controversial. Congress overhauled the program in 1996, ostensibly to assure that as the telecommunications industry transitioned from monopoly to competition, providers would continue to assist those who could not afford basic service. But in the fifteen years since, the fund has doubled in size to $8 billion annually, much of which is spent on projects having little to do with the traditional goals of universal service. The Federal Communications Commission has admitted that the system distorts investment in myriad ways, while the Government Accountability Office has criticized the program for an appalling lack of oversight. At the same time, advances in technology mean that the fund's cost is drawn from a shrinking base of interstate and international telecommunications revenue, which has caused the USF surcharge paid by consumers on all interstate calls to skyrocket from 3% in 1998 to 17.9% at the beginning of 2012. To the Commission's credit, it adopted a sweeping 750-page order in late 2011 that brought much-needed reforms to the High-Cost Fund, the biggest and most problematic portion of the Universal Service program. The Commission also began shifting the program's focus from ordinary telephone to broadband service, recognizing the importance of high-speed Internet access to modern society. But as significant as those reforms are, and as difficult as they will be to achieve, they represent only the first step toward the transformation needed. Over the next five years, the Commission should refocus the Universal Service program on what ought to be its renewed core mission: assisting consumers who cannot afford broadband access, through market-based, consumer-empowering initiatives that befit an increasingly competitive broadband marketplace. And it should abandon the antiquated and rickety contribution mechanism currently in place, by funding these initiatives instead from the general treasury.
Author: Daniel Lyons
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 11
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Book Description
The federal Universal Service Fund program is in crisis. This observation is neither exaggerated nor controversial. Congress overhauled the program in 1996, ostensibly to assure that as the telecommunications industry transitioned from monopoly to competition, providers would continue to assist those who could not afford basic service. But in the fifteen years since, the fund has doubled in size to $8 billion annually, much of which is spent on projects having little to do with the traditional goals of universal service. The Federal Communications Commission has admitted that the system distorts investment in myriad ways, while the Government Accountability Office has criticized the program for an appalling lack of oversight. At the same time, advances in technology mean that the fund's cost is drawn from a shrinking base of interstate and international telecommunications revenue, which has caused the USF surcharge paid by consumers on all interstate calls to skyrocket from 3% in 1998 to 17.9% at the beginning of 2012. To the Commission's credit, it adopted a sweeping 750-page order in late 2011 that brought much-needed reforms to the High-Cost Fund, the biggest and most problematic portion of the Universal Service program. The Commission also began shifting the program's focus from ordinary telephone to broadband service, recognizing the importance of high-speed Internet access to modern society. But as significant as those reforms are, and as difficult as they will be to achieve, they represent only the first step toward the transformation needed. Over the next five years, the Commission should refocus the Universal Service program on what ought to be its renewed core mission: assisting consumers who cannot afford broadband access, through market-based, consumer-empowering initiatives that befit an increasingly competitive broadband marketplace. And it should abandon the antiquated and rickety contribution mechanism currently in place, by funding these initiatives instead from the general treasury.
Author: Donald Gale
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
ISBN: 1581123221
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 177
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Book Description
The telecommunications industry has evolved into a very competitive industry since 1980. Aggressive competition is the norm in the long distance, equipment, operator services and many other segments of the industry. The remaining segment of the market without widespread meaningful competition is the "last-mile" wireline service to the customer premise. Incumbent local exchange carriers enjoy a monopoly to serve nearly all residences and most business customers, collecting over 99% of all local exchange service revenues. Using their monopoly status, incumbents have developed a cross-subsidy system which uses the rates paid by some customers to lower the rates paid by others to support a policy known as "universal service." This policy has resulted in telephone service reaching 94% of America's households. Carriers claim that this policy cost them $20 billion annually, potential entrants claim the true cost is as low as $4 billion and the rest is profit. In the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress ordered the end of the local exchange monopoly and opened the local markets to competition. Congress also specified the continuation of universal service, specified that telephone penetration should be increased and specified that the universal service concept will be applied to America's schools, libraries and rural health centers. Congress also specified that, unlike today, all carriers will contribute fairly and equitably fairly to the universal service fund and that all carriers providing local service, including new competitors, will be eligible to receive support from the fund. The cost to meet these requirements in a competitive environment totals $7.2 billion, or 5.1% of net carrier revenue. This thesis addresses the definition of universal service and the services that should be eligible for support, the new competitive environment, how to collect the universal service support fund, and how to best distribute the funds to customers targeted to receive support from the system: those in high-cost areas, low-income consumers, and schools and libraries for advanced communications services.
Author: Jerry Ellig
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The Federal Communications Commission has spent $30 billion over the past decade on subsidies for phone service in high cost areas, but it has never developed outcome goals or measures to assess whether the subsidies have accomplished the intended results. Congress should require the FCC to measure the outcomes articulated in the Telecommunications Act: access in rural areas to services reasonably comparable to those in urban areas at reasonably comparable rates. Legislators should also require the FCC or independent analysts to: 1. Analyze how much of a change in these two outcomes the high cost fund has caused, 2. Assess how this change in access and price has affected subscribership, and 3. Estimate how this change in subscribership has affected the economic, social, and cultural opportunities available to rural households, or other broad social benefits the high cost fund is supposed to promote. This paper was originally submitted as written testimony to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet.
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186
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Book Description
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 124
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Book Description
Author: Anna Coote
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509539840
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 82
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Book Description
The idea that healthcare and education should be provided as universal public services to all who need them is widely accepted. But why leave it there? Why not expand it to more of life’s essentials? In their bold new book, Anna Coote and Andrew Percy argue that this transformational new policy – Universal Basic Services – is exactly what we need to save our societies and our planet. The old argument that free markets and individual choice are the best way to solve pressing problems of poverty, inequality and environmental degradation has led us to catastrophe, and must be abandoned. The authors show that expanding the principle of collective universal service provision to everyday essentials like transport, childcare and housing is not only the best way of tackling many of the biggest problems facing the contemporary world: it’s also efficient, practical and affordable. Anyone who cares about fighting for a fairer, greener and more democratic world should read this book.
Author: Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 150
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Book Description
This report shows how Universal Service Fund support for schools and libraries is used by school districts and libraries around the country. Highlighted are approximately 190 success stories of program participants that have come to rely on the USF to expand educational opportunities for students through better use of telecommunications technology in the classroom.
Author: Daniel Lyons
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The basic tenet of universal service -- that the government should assist those who struggle to access the network -- has long been a cornerstone of American telecommunications policy. This mission takes on greater significance in the digital age, when internet access is important for not just communication but also employment, commerce, education, and countless other activities.Unfortunately, while the Universal Service Fund's goals are sound, there is significant room for improvement regarding modernizing these programs for the digital age. This is particularly true of Lifeline, which has been repeatedly criticized as ineffective, incomplete, and unnecessarily paternalistic. The committee should also consider re-evaluating E-Rate in light of the mixed evidence of its effectiveness. Through trial and error, the High Cost Fund has made a more successful transition to the broadband era and has yielded important lessons that the program should retain going forward.
Author: USF Industry Task Force
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Telecommunication policy
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Author: Derek Turner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Congress is currently considering overhauling several key components of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, in the attempt to bring the law in line with recent advances in market competition and technology. One major area under consideration for reform is the Universal Service Fund. Many observers believe that the current universal service funding mechanism is both inefficient and unsustainable. Furthermore, the access charge regime -- an implicit universal service subsidy mechanism -- may also be in need of reform in order to face the realities of a converged marketplace. Despite the fact that broadband is viewed by many as the communications technology of the 21st century, under current regulations, only schools, libraries, and rural health care facilities are eligible to receive universal service support explicitly for broadband services. However, several legislative proposals currently under consideration in Congress would extend universal service to broadband. The impetus to expand USF to broadband is driven in part by recent data that show the U.S. falling behind other developed nations in measures of broadband penetration, speed, and price. However, a satisfactory explanation of this “broadband lag” is needed in order for members of Congress and the FCC to craft policies that adequately move the U.S. towards the goal of universal, affordable broadband access. This report employs comparative statistical methods to characterize and understand the differences in broadband performance between the U.S. and other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations. A key finding is that the U.S.'s unusually high poverty rate may be a major factor contributing to this country's increasingly poor international broadband performance. This finding suggests that extending USF to broadband may help ameliorate this disturbing trend. However, any proposal to reform USF must ensure that contributions are collected and distributed in a more efficient and equitable manner (compared to the current system), while at the same time adhering to the statutory goals of the program. This report examines the costs and benefits of several contribution reform proposals, and concludes that a numbers-connectivity contribution system would be far more efficient than the current revenue-based approach, and that most consumers would benefit under a properly designed numbers-connectivity system. The report also finds that one of the major economic justifications for universal service -- network externalities -- is most relevant when applying universal service to broadband. The report recommends gradually transitioning the universal service system away from the archaic voice standard, and towards a “bits” metric, where in the future all recipients of universal service support will be required to offer a broadband capable connection.
