Universal Service Reform: Start With Accountability

The Federal Communications Commission is reviewing public comments on how to reform the federal Universal Service Fund. The proposed reforms raise many significant policy questions. Should the size of the subsidies be capped? Should the FCC stop subsidizing competing phone companies in locations where there are not sufficient customers to support one? Should the commission use “reverse auctions” to award subsidies to the party that offers to serve an area at the lowest subsidy? Should mobile phone and broadband service become part of the universal service bundle supported by federal subsidies? But what about this question -- How will we know whether the proposed reforms will accomplish the fund’s congressionally mandated goals: providing access to reasonably comparable services at reasonable rates?
http://www.mercatus.org/publications/pubID.4589/pub_detail.asp#7-1-2008_...