Major Issues
Universal Service
- The 1996 Act says that all support must be ìexplicitî
- In many rural areas the cost of local service exceeds $100/month
- Current Universal Service funding levels
- Rural High Cost $2.7B
- Schools & Libraries $2.2B
- Low Income $0.7B
- Total $5.6B
- Who will pay for it?
- Currently 7.2% assessment on interstate end-user services
- Proposal to shift to flat rate recovery on network connections