FCC Chairman Pai Responds to Congress on Local Service Rate Floor

FCC Chairman Pai sent letters to Sens Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Luther Strange (R-AL) and Reps Robert Aderholt (R-AL) and Mo Brooks (R-AL) on June 20, 2017, in response to their letter about the local service rate floor. Pai said after several years of experience with the rate floor rule, it now appears to impose high costs on rural consumers without any corresponding federal benefit. He noted the Commission recently froze the rate floor at the current minimum rate of $18 per month and adopted an NPRM seeking comment on whether the rate floor has met its intended purposes, whether changes should be made to the current rate floor methodology, or whether it should be eliminated entirely.