普通服務資助的最佳和壞習慣(ppt 15頁)(英文)

Best and Worst Practices in Universal Service Funding--A United States Case Study
USF in the U.S. subsidizes specified services of local exchange carriers operating in high cost areas, and the rates paid by residents in rural areas and Indian reservations, the poor, schools, libraries, rural hospitals and clinics.
The USF mission has included such ulterior motives as preserving the Bell System monopoly, transferring funds from urban to rural carriers and from long distance callers to local service subscribers, subsidizing service even for consumers quite able to afford the full price, and making it possible for regulators to showcase extraordinarily cheap local calling rates.
USF avoidance technologies and strategies, e.g., VoIP and calling cards, coupled with consumer discontent with a 10.5% “tax” threaten the sustainability of the current regime.
Regulatory decisions, with some judicial approval, create an ever expanding information processing “safe harbor” exempt from USF liability.
The mission as structured will never achieve its core goals, or the expanded mission established by the Telecommunications Act of xx.
The USF mechanism benefits politicians and carriers first and consumers last.
Subsidy mechanisms distort market forces and the USF mechanism provides unnecessary benefits to some people while imposing excessive burdens on others.
Should monthly “lifeline” Plain Old Telephone Service (“POTS”) cost less than a case of beer, or 2 packs of cigarettes?
USF emphasizes carrier-specified costs and recurring service charges with little regard for new technological options, the need to promote computer/digital literacy and the importance of advanced broadband access in lieu of POTS.
The USF mechanism creates an unwieldy bureaucracy and process prone to abuse and gaming.

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