在普通服務資助的最佳和壞習慣--美國專題研究(ppt 15)

Universal Service Funding: A Flawed $6.5 Billion Annual Mission
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.

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