The “cuts and caps” in the FCC’s Universal Service Fund...
The “cuts and caps” in the FCC’s Universal Service Fund reform order and the failure to adopt a “sufficient and predictable” funding mechanism for rate-of-return carriers as the fund shifts to support broadband “has already led to a chilling of…
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investment in rate-of-return carriers and the rural areas they serve,” representatives of the Rural Iowa Independent Telephone Association said in a series of meetings at the FCC. “Rural high-cost companies must invest substantial amounts of capital to provide telecommunications services, particularly broadband services, to rural communities,” the group said (http://xrl.us/bmpytb). “Rate-of-return regulation has been the basis for compensating private companies that provide common-carrier utility services for over 100 years. In areas without competition, where the carrier must be able to provide carrier of last resort service, rate-of-return continues to be the best possible means of compensating a private utility.”