The U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans heard arguments December 1 in a lawsuit against implementation of the universal service program for telecommunications discounts for libraries and schools.
SBC Communications and GTE want the court to overturn the Federal Communications Commission order implementing the program, maintaining that it forces telephone companies to carry too much of the burden for the subsidies and exceeds the scope of the law establishing the program, the CNet online news service reported December 1.
"What [the FCC] has done is made a massive bureaucracy, and a grant program that doesn't make sense," SBC spokesperson Selim Bingol told CNet. "It's not the way the law was written." GTE's Brianna Gowing said, "It would be a fairer way if everybody shared this cost, not just the telecom companies."
Attorneys from AT&T and the Educational and Library Network Coalition testified in favor of the program. A decision is not expected until next spring.
Posted December 7, 1998.