NCTA Study: Stop Allowing USF to Secure Rural Broadband Loans

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association issued a study the lobbying group commissioned Navigant Economics to do on the Federal Universal Service Fund. The report recommends that the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service "should temporarily suspend new loans to recipients of USF funds and stop leveraging USF support to qualify applicants for RUS loans." Cable operators are concerned that proposed USF reforms could be "deferred or diluted" for fear of getting in the way of the RUS program. But the study suggests RUS is relying on USF subsidies to pay for 78 cents on every loan dollar.