Blair Levin: Fix the Universal Service Fund

Levin, who directed the creation of the National Broadband Plan while he was at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), said that it is essential to overhaul the Universal Service Fund. "The current Universal Service system is broadly flawed," he said. "It creates false incentives. It creates situations where we're paying one phone company $17,000 per line, per year. ... The point is, if we don't fix that -- and part of the Broadband Plan is about fixing that -- the vision of broadband doesn't matter."

He also said it is understandable that many Americans fail to see the broad public benefits of the Internet. It's because the government has been slow to show them those benefits. "We as a country haven't been effective at utilizing the platform for, essentially, public services," he said.