USF Contribution Factor Over Time

There’s been a steady increase over time in the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund Contribution Factor, which is the percentage of interstate and international end-user telecommunications revenues that telecommunications service providers must contribute to support the ever growing federal universal service fund. The FCC announced the contribution factor has increased for the fourth quarter of 2014 by .4 percent to 16.1 percent. This means that American consumers will pay a 16.1% fee on a portion of their [long distance] telephone bills for USF. This path is clearly disturbing and unsustainable. I reiterate my call for an overall budget cap on universal service, which can help limit the demand placed on the collection side.