Universal Service Fund

The support structures that assist low-income families cannot work unless those in need have functional means of communication. Doctors monitoring children with fragile health, employers who can offer an extra shift to a struggling worker, nutrition support programs like SNAP which must confirm income eligibility — all these must be able to communicate with a low-income person, often within limited timeframes. Our collective and individual economic well-being is dependent on communications tools.

In spite of the billions of dollars in private investment and government subsidies over multiple decades, the numbers still paint a disturbing picture. Roughly 39 percent of rural Americans lack access to high-speed broadband, compared with just 4 percent of urban Americans. The internet that rural Americans can access is slower and more expensive than it is for their urban counterparts. And to add insult to injury, the rural population generally earns less than those in urban areas.  Building networks in rural America is incredibly expensive, and in some places it's nearly impossible.

Even in the country that invented the internet, access has remained painfully slow for many rural residents in places like the central state of Arkansas, far from the big cities of the East and West coasts. That may be about to change. The Federal Communications Commission recently auctioned off almost $1.5 billion in subsidies to get broadband providers to serve an additional 700,000 American homes over the next 10 years. Additional such auctions are planned.

The Kansas congressional delegation called on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to restore sufficiency and predictability to the Universal Service Fund (USF) High Cost program’s budget. The letter was signed by every member of the delegation, including Sens Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Reps Roger Marshall (R-KS), Lynn Jenkins (R-KS), Kevin Yoder (R-KS) and Ron Estes (R-KS).

Despite Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s attempt to resolve Sen. Dan Sullivan’s (R-AK) concerns over the subsidy funding flowing to his state, the senator said the fix isn’t enough and that he will keep blocking reconfirmation of Commissioner Brendan Carr, at least until he meets with Chairman Pai to discuss the matter. Both Sen.

One of the most interesting aspects of the recently-completed Connect America Fund (CAF) II auction is the strong showing by smaller, non-traditional service providers. The second biggest winner, for example, was Wisper — a company little known outside southern Illinois and parts of neighboring states, where the company offers fixed wireless broadband, primarily in rural areas, including some areas the company has served for more than a decade.

In an era that’s buzzing with talk of autonomous vehicles and virtual wallets, mere access to broadband internet remains out of reach for many. And while Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai frequently reminds the public that his top priority is closing the digital divide, his actions have made it harder, again and again, for Americans to get internet access. He has been leading the charge to gut Lifeline, the federal program that subsidizes phone and broadband connections for low-income people in the United States.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) hammered the Federal Communications Commission at a hearing for not investing enough in subsidizing and deploying broadband to rural areas like his home state, calling it an "unacceptable failure" and adding that he has urged FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to act immediately to correct the situation. Chairman Pai's office signaled it agreed the FCC's budget-control mechanism worked against closing the rural digital divide, and it was on the way to fixing it.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau announces that effective November 2, 2018, the National Lifeline Eligibility Verifier (National Verifier) will fully launch in the initial six participating states—Colorado, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.