Randy Sukow

During the 30^th anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Federal Communications Commission has begun a review of one of the most consequential provisions of the Act—the Commission’s Universal Service Fund. Chairman Brendan Carr says the FCC has begun looking for ways to update each USF component. “Up to now, you’ve seen some efforts on Lifeline, which is the low-income subsidy program.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association were among the industry groups calling for raising the Federal Communications Commission fixed broadband benchmark from its current 100/20 Mbps benchmark. The groups filed comments earlier this week in the Commission’s annual Section 706 broadband inquiry.

On April 28, Amazon’s Project Kuiper launched an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida and sent 27 satellites into low Earth orbit. The ground personnel rapidly established contact with the satellites. It was the first of a series of planned launches to an altitude of 280 miles, working toward a future constellation of 3,200 satellites beaming broadband service worldwide with extremely low latency. The hope is to give Starlink some competition. That sums up the state of the LEO-based broadband market today.

The middle mile has been a problem for rural broadband service providers since early DSL services in the 1990s. Even today, the distance between a rural BSP’s service area to the nearest connection to the core network could be hundreds of miles.

It was to be one hour of oral arguments about the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Universal Service Fund (USF) program, considering whether Congress delegated too much of its authority when it created the program in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Instead, U.S. Supreme Court justices spent more than two and a half hours peppering attorneys with questions about the nature of USF, whether the statute fails to set limits on the amount of funding it can collect and whether those fees are, in fact, taxes on the American public that Congress never debated.

The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in the case of FCC v. Consumers’ Research—a case regarding the Universal Service Fund—for Wednesday morning, March 26. The court will decide on a 2024 ruling by the U.S.

It is not controversial to say that the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Universal Service Fund (USF) program is unsustainable. Something must change. Universal Service Fund programs cover the cost of maintaining telephone service in high-cost areas, wiring rural schools, libraries, and healthcare facilities for the internet, and providing devices and services at discounted rates to low-income households.

The three-judge panel hearing the case over the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) now-stayed order to regulate the internet using Title II rules peppered the parties in the case with questions about the definitions of “information services,” “telecommunications” and “telecommunications services.” The panel also questioned the relevance of the Supreme Court’s reversal of the Chevron doctrine and the ambiguities created by the FCC find

Organizations representing rural wireline internet providers have stated their preference for continuing to favor federal funding for fiber-based broadband construction. However, many participating in a recent National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) comment round said the agency is correct in opening the door to greater funding of alternative technologies, including unlicensed fixed wireless and low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellite systems.

Even as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moves forward with its long-delayed 5G Fund program to expand advanced wireless services in rural areas, the government and wireless industry are staking out the parameters of sixth-generation (6G) wireless. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recently accepted industry comments from about 60 companies and associations on how government and industry should shape 6G, which some estimate could be deployed by 2030. Among the questions NTIA seeks to answer is how 6G enhancements could improve wireless network