USF Reforms Must Not Come at Consumer Expense
WASHINGTON -- On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on proposed plans to revamp the Universal Service Fund.
Free Press Political Adviser Joel Kelsey made the following statement:
“Witnesses at today’s hearing spent a good deal of time discussing the impact of USF reform on telecom companies, but we think Congress’s time would be better spent looking at the impact of proposed reforms on consumer wallets.
“Telecom companies have a lot at stake and stand to reap huge benefits in this reform effort, but it’s working people who are likely to end up picking up the tab for those benefits. We wish that the hearing had focused even more directly on the impacts of the proposed USF reform on cash-strapped households already struggling to pay their phone bills.
“Under the ABC plan, consumers will face very real rate increases on local phone service in exchange for theoretical and speculative benefits. If enacted in anything resembling its current form, the plan would substantially raise phone bills for tens of millions of households and transfer billions of dollars to the largest telecom providers."
