The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) will hear oral arguments on March 26 in the case of FCC v. Consumers’ Research regarding the constitutionality of the Universal Service Fund (USF). The Court will be reviewing a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that said that the USF is unconstitutional. That ruling conflicted with rulings from two other appeal courts that largely blessed the Federal Communications Commission and USF. The case that drove this to the Supreme Court was filed by Consumers’ Research, a nonprofit activist group. The 11^th Circuit ruled that the method used to fund the USF is an illegal tax that didn’t have any specific direction or approval from Congress. If SCOTUS scuttles the current USF, it will be up to Congress to decide if it values the functions being done by the fund. Congress could probably authorize the current USF and the FCC’s role in a law with only a few paragraphs of language. Congress could also preempt this challenge at any time before the ruling. The whole industry recognizes that the USF needs reform, particularly in the way it is funded. That’s likely to be the sticky point for finding a Congressional solution because the funding question pits a lot of powerful lobbies against each other.

Internet service provider 360 Broadband will expand and upgrade internet access in Fannin County (TX) with the help of a $52 million award from the Texas Broadband Development Office’s Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas (BOOT) II Program. The grant will fund part of a $65 million project to bring high-speed fiber internet service to the region, transforming connectivity for residents, businesses, and community institutions. The buildout will improve internet speeds and reliability for 12,000 locations, with 4,355 funded by the grant and the remainder by 360 Broadband. The project is already underway and is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, creating good local jobs in the process.