Universal Service Fund generated remarkably meager results for $50 billion

UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND GENERATED REMARKABLY MERGER RESULTS FOR $50 BILLION SPENT
[SOURCE: Jeff Pulver Blog, AUTHOR: Daniel Berninger, Tier1 Research]
[Commentary] Berninger publishes online a July 10 letter he sent to the Senate and House Commerce Committees. In it he writes, "The importance of achieving universal access to telephone service motivates a request that your committees open hearings to account for how the $50 billion spent by the Universal Service Fund (USF) over the last 20 years contributed to the cause of universal service. More than five million households remain without regular access to telephone service in the United States. Penetration rates increased 2% from 1985 to 1995 as the USF consumed $7 billion in the program's first decade and an additional 1% of households got telephone service between 1996 and 2005 as the USF spent another $43 billion. This might seem like progress albeit small and expensive ($16,000 per additional telephone line) until one notices the penetration rate for telephone service grew 2% in the 70's before the USF existed.
http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/004993.html