Paul Kapustka's Blog
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February 28, 2006
USF -- The biggest mess of all
Want a thornier problem than Network Neutrality? Try USF, or the Universal Service Fund, on for size. As today's predictable debate showed, the rural Senators are simply not going to let go of these tax dollars, no way, nohow. Looks like Americans will be paying for rural broadband too, if the 10 percent-40 percent rule keeps holding.
What's the 10-40 rule? The fact that 10 percent of the nation elects 40 percent of the Senators, a democratic quirk that effectively means that once things like USF get passed once, they will be with us forever, or at least until we change the makeup of the Senate to more accurately reflect the U.S. population.
Never mind that things like the E-rate program, funded out of USF, are rife with mismanagement, and never mind that potentially cheaper solutions like VoIP don't receive fund help. As long as Ted "got to protect those fishing villages" Stevens remains in charge of the Senate Commerce Committee, anything other than more money for rural telcos probably won't even be considered.
So while Net Neutrality may be the hot-button topic, it will be figured out long before USF gets a much-needed overhaul, simply because the rural Senators have enough power to squelch any attempts at radical change. And until we all move to Skype, they'll keep getting their bucks as long as we keep getting phone bills.
Posted by paul at February 28, 2006 04:21 PM