Lawmakers Push FCC on Long-Term USF High-Cost Program Funding Fix
Sixty-one senators and 130 House members wrote FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Tuesday urging the commission to institute a long-term budget fix for the USF high-cost program. Temporary funding infusions are welcomed, but “persistent limitations on resources can affect the ability…
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of smaller broadband providers to deliver services in our country’s most rural communities,” the House and Senate lawmakers said in separate identically worded letters. “The FCC’s cost model for smaller operators electing model-based USF support is not yet funded at the designed levels, and carriers not receiving model-based support will once again face significant funding cuts when the program’s new fiscal year” begins July 1. They sought action on an NPRM and establishing "lasting solutions." NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield said "sufficient and predictable USF support is essential to provide the business case for private sector investment and to sustain these networks."