Universal Service Fund

The expansion of the Universal Service Fund contribution structure to include cloud service providers is rumored to be one of the options being considered by policymakers. This study demonstrates that imposing USF fees on cloud computing services will harm US consumers and economic growth across national and state economies. Highlights include: 

The Universal Service Administrative Company submitted the contribution base amount to be used for the third quarter of calendar year 2025 (3Q2025). The total projected collected interstate and international end-user revenue base to determine the contribution factor for the Universal Service support mechanisms for 3Q2025 is $8,045,954,273. 

Changes are coming for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. While BEAD, a $42.5 billion COVID-era initiative to connect all remaining unserved locations in the U.S. to high-speed internet, is a relatively new broadband funding program, the Universal Service Fund, which has existed in its current form for nearly three decades, is also facing an existential crisis.

The government giveth, and the government taketh away? That may be the case for the future of school-bus Wi-Fi, which is currently eligible for E-Rate discount under the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Services Fund. Whether that will continue is now uncertain due to court cases challenging the validity of the USF funding model. In late March, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on an appeal of a 5th Circuit decision that the Universal Service Fund’s revenue mechanism represents an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority.

The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin announced the award of $750,000 to non-profit and higher-learning entities that will help people in Wisconsin access essential telecommunications services. The Commission awarded a total of 19 grants from the 2025 rounds of the Nonprofit Access Grant Program and the Lifeline Outreach Grant Program, both of which are funded by the Universal Service Fund.

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition and more than 80 national and state organizations urged the House of Representatives to vote NO on S.J.Res.7/H.J.Res.33—Congressional Review Act resolutions that would overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to allow E-Rate funding for wireless hotspot lending by schools and libraries, and bar future Commissions from funding hotspots.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) announced that there is sufficient funding available to fully meet the Universal Service Administrative Company’s (USAC) estimated demand for category one and category two requests for E-Rate-supported services for funding year 2025. On March 27, 2025, USAC submitted a demand estimate for the E-Rate program for funding year 2025.  USAC estimates the total demand for funding year 2025 will be $3.225 billion, which includes estimated demand for category one services of $1.806 billion, and of $1.418 billion for catego

Years of Republican and Democratic administrations have tried to fix the nation’s broadband woes, through flawed attempts.

Spectrum announced the launch of Spectrum Internet, Mobile, TV and Voice services to more than 770 homes and small businesses in Hertford County (NC). Spectrum’s multi-year rural construction initiative is driven by more than $7 billion in private investment from Spectrum and will ultimately add an additional 100,000+ miles of fiber-optic network infrastructure and deliver symmetrical and multi-gigabit speed internet access to more than 1.7 million new locations across the country.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) granted a limited waiver of the support reduction schedule for certain recipients of Connect America Fund (CAF) high-cost support that missed the July 1, 2024 network performance testing certification deadline. The Bureau finds good cause to consider a carrier to have certified its network performance testing based on when it contacted the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) about its certification.