Could the FCC Make Video Streamers Pay Into the Universal Service Fund?

The Federal Communications Commission is starting to get input on its examination of the future of the Universal Service Fund (USF). That input includes whether to make internet service providers (ISPs) pay into the fund, as telecommunications companies currently do, given that the baseline advanced communications service that USF is paying for is increasingly broadband rather than the phone service the program was designed for. Also on the table is whether to make streaming services pay into the subsidy given that they are riding that broadband service into homes. As edge providers have moved more into Washington's regulatory sights, there have been various efforts to bring over-the-top video into the FCC's ambit. This includes pushes to define over-the-top video providers as MVPDs and subject them to program access and carriage requirements--as the FCC once proposed under then-FCC chairman Tom Wheeler--and to put them under the FCC's must-carry regime as well. ISPs have also argued that the Netflix's of the world were pushing for middle-mile net neutrality to avoid paying for the upgrades needed to handle the increased traffic load their OTT services generate. USF comments are due February 17 after stakeholders got an extension of the original January 31 deadline.