FCC Aims to Reduce USF Cap Uncertainty – At Least for a While

Rate of return carriers face less uncertainty with regard to universal service fund (USF) high-cost loop support as the result of an order adopted by the Federal Communications Commission– in the short term, at least.

In the order the FCC said that for 2014 it would maintain the approach to USF benchmarking used in 2013 – summing the capital and operating expense caps. “We do this to provide sufficient time, after reconciliation of recently filed study area boundary data, for public input on the development of a single cap, as required by the commission,” said the chief of the FCC Wireline Competition Bureau in the order. In addition, the order delays the phase-in of high-cost loop support reductions by one year rather than making them fully effective in 2014.