Cap on subsidies criticized

CAP ON SUBSIDIES CRITICIZED
[SOURCE: knoxnews.com]
John E. Rooney, president and CEO of U.S. Cellular, said Monday that the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service's recommended decision last week just before Thanksgiving was "nothing to give thanks for." "In fact, it is about as far away from true reform as one can get. These recommendations represent a turn of the clock back to an era of monopoly providers and inadequate service and thwart what Congress set out to accomplish with the Telecommunications Act of 1996," Rooney said in a statement. Rooney said that by proposing to cap Universal Service Fund support to wireless carriers, the joint board would deprive rural America of hundreds of millions of dollars in new wireless investment. He warned that the joint board's decision that each rural geographic area be served by a single wireless carrier will force rural households into a federally regulated and subsidized monopoly system. "This is the problem Congress intended to solve when it created the USF to make sure that rural communities are not left behind as new telecommunications technologies emerge. If enacted, this recommendation would undermine that essential goal and further widen the technological gap between urban and rural America," Rooney said, adding that the USF is to work with competition - not create barriers to competition - so rural consumers can choose the services.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/nov/27/cap-on-subsidies-criticized/

* US Cellular press release
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/11-26-2007/0004711558&EDATE=