Will Hild

Consumers' Research is a nonprofit consumer-education organization. Its members and the individual consumers with whom it works pay a "Federal Universal Service Charge" as a separate line item on their phone bills. That charge is a tax. It is now, by the Federal Communications Commission's own proposal, 42 percent of interstate telecommunications revenues for the fourth quarter of 2026—the highest contribution factor in the history of the Fund. The High-Cost program is the principal reason.