Voice over Internet Protocol can be delivered cheap enough that it might negate the need for universal-service subsidies, said Michael Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
“If the goal (of universal service) is achieved, you don’t need a government program,” said Powell. “You don’t need a government program just to have one; you need it for a specific purpose.”
Before wireless carriers, which just recently started receiving universal-service subsidies, think that Powell is going to do away with the program, Powell admitted it is too important politically for it to go away any time soon.
The Universal-Service Fund “will be with us for a long time, and we will work our way through protecting the pots of money, but if every American had voice over the Internet for $30 a month, what is the fund for? Aren’t you delivering what the fund was established for?” asked Powell. “Forget the fund. What are the goals? And let’s achieve the goals and then decide whether the fund is (still) needed.”
The impact on the USF is one of the concerns of the rising popularity of VoIP because the Internet traditionally has been seen as an information service and not subject to telecommunications regulation, including paying into the USF.
Powell appeared at the Jacobs Center (named for Qualcomm Inc. founder Irwin Jacobs) on the campus of the University of California at San Diego last week. His appearance was webcast.
During a wide-ranging discussion, Powell discussed his vision for the future of telecommunications regulation beginning with how the radio-frequency spectrum is managed.
“You can really understand our approach to wireless if you understand our approach to regulation in general,” said Powell, noting that regulators need to be humble. “This is not the space for the government to take over. This is the space where you let American ingenuity take over.”
Because government moves so slow, sometimes important innovations get missed, said Powell. For example, today schools would be wired to the Internet using Wi-Fi rather than tearing up buildings to bring the Web to the classroom.
“I worry that we might have missed wireless while we were (developing the E-rate portion of the universal-service program) doing this. Now you would Wi-Fi everybody,” said Powell.
