Rural Telecos Suggest Solutions on Universal Service Reform

The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA) and the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies (OPASTCO), in conjunction with 30 state and regional associations filed their recommendations to fix the Universal Service Fund at the Federal Communications Commission.

Each of the groups agrees that the current Universal Service Fund needs to be updated to include broadband in addition to traditional telephony. They fear, however, that the Federal Communications Commission will move too quickly, stranding companies that have already invested heavily in providing telephone service to rural areas. The groups submitted a joint filing requesting the FCC to develop a cost-based system, which will slowly decrease USF support over an extended period. Firms need the extended time to recoup investment costs from the telephone systems and redirect investment to broadband deployment. The associations also requested that the FCC update the intercarrier compensation (ICC) regulations to confirm that Voice over IP (VoIP) providers must pay traditional phone companies to transfer their traffic.