It's easy to ridicule the outliers, but the reality is that without USF the majority of rural America that has Internet connectivity today wouldn't be online. Yes, the price-cap carriers didn't do much in rural America, but that's because there was little economic incentive to do so. Rate-of-return carriers had the incentive to invest to earn a return, and they did that. Many of the independents serve small communities and there is an element of local pride in providing good service, and coops seek to serve their members well, and do the same thing. BTW, the FCC in their recent USF/ICC rulings has put a cap on the funding per customer per year to $5K, so you won't see any more of the examples listed in the Connected Planet article. Frank -----Original Message----- From: Faisal Imtiaz [mailto:faisal@snappydsl.net] Sent: Friday, March 23, 2012 12:54 AM To: nanog@nanog.org Subject: Re: last mile, regulatory incentives, etc So do a quick research on USF and see who gets paid from it... Please don't read this if you have just eaten.. you might puke .. http://connectedplanetonline.com/commentary/real-story-usf-data-071510/ http://republicans.energycommerce.house.gov/Media/file/PDFs/2011usf/Response toQuestion1.pdf If you have more time.. read these for your enjoyment.. http://energycommerce.house.gov/news/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=8737 Then one can understand how come folks like Century Tel can gobble up Qwest, Savvis, Sprint, and a few others rather quickly !!! I believe the current USF contribution is about 19% !!! Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet& Telecom 7266 SW 48 Street Miami, Fl 33155 Tel: 305 663 5518 x 232 Helpdesk: 305 663 5518 option 2 Email: Support@Snappydsl.net On 3/23/2012 1:37 AM, Randy Bush wrote:
Yes, I find it quite "amusing" that I am paying additional fees on all of my telecommunications services to subsidize high speed PON networks in rural bumf*ck while I can't get anything like it in San Jose, California. That's OK, you're all in the same boat - the subsidized users can't get it either. :) So where are these "subsidies" going? what a silly question. lining the telcos' pockets. american so called 'broadband' is a joke and a scam.
randy