Taking a page from Spain's and Finland's efforts to use their respective USF funds to expand the availability of broadband throughout their respective countries, U.S. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski wants to apply a similar reworking of the $7 billion Universal Service Fund (USF). In addition, the FCC wants to investigate how it can free up more spectrum to enable wireless broadband services.
Structured to provide subsidies for phone service in rural parts of the country and low-income families, the FCC believes the plan should be realigned to spur broadband service to more rural areas. Bringing that plan from paper to action, however, won't be easy as rural phone companies and their political buddies have long opposed any changes to the USF.
"USF is a multi-billion dollar annual fund that continues to support yesterday's communications infrastructure," Genachowski said in a Wall Street Journal article. "We need to reorient the fund to support broadband communications."
For more:
- Wall Street Journal has this article
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