How should we handle areas currently covered by FCC high cost programs in the context of the BEAD funding?

The Alternative Connect America Model (A-CAM) program is a monthly subsidy from the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund (USF) that covers about 1.27 million Broadband Serviceable Locations. A-CAM's funding comes from a surcharge on phone bills. But the “contribution base” — the number of phone lines — is shrinking. That means to generate the same amount of money, the percentage of the total phone bill needs to go up. That’s been happening quarter-over-quarter for years. A contentious FCC proceeding mostly showed that there are two sides, and they’re far apart: a vague “tax Big Tech ad revenue” camp and a “expand the base by adding a small surcharge to all broadband plans” camp. If neither of those seems like a fun solution, one way to kick the can down the road is to shrink the amount of money committed to Universal Service Fund programs.