WASHINGTON-Wireless carriers currently finance about 30 percent of the universal-service fund, but only get about 2 percent of the money available, John Stanton, chairman, director and chief executive officer of Western Wireless Corp. told the House telecommunications subcommittee Wednesday.
“That really goes to the question of when you are contributing to the fund should you receive from the fund, and the answer is ‘no,’ because all telecommunications carriers contribute to the fund but not all telecommunications carriers are eligible to receive from the fund,” said FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy.
Abernathy told the House telecommunications subcommittee that the Federal Communications Commission is examining whether receiving money from the universal-service fund means that certain obligations are expected.
Rural wireline carriers, which often are at odds with wireless carriers-most particularly Western Wireless-have said that wireless carriers that are certified as eligible telecommunications carriers should be regulated in the same manner as incumbent local exchange carriers. Their representative on the panel, Sidney Shank, general manager of Bloomingdale Telephone Co. based in Bloomingdale, Mich., repeated this theme.
“No. 1, we are regulated,” said Shank. “We will provide service to each and every customer in our exchange.” Wireless does not work in all areas, she added.
Because wireless carriers are now eligible to receive from the universal-service fund, there is a fear that it will end up like the social-security system, said Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), chairman of the House Commerce Committee.
“The amount of money available to make sure everybody has a phone is diminishing while demand grows, so it is sort of like the social-security system. We started with 15 people working for every person collecting social security. We are down to less than three who are working to support every person who is retired, and it has become a stressed system and (the universal-service) this system is becoming stressed,” said Tauzin.
