FCC Revisits Who Should Pay
for Universal Service
In a February 19 hearing before the Federal Communications Commission, telephone companies and Internet service providers presented differing views on whether the latter should pay into the fund to provide libraries and schools with universal-service discounts.
Maintaining that some ISPs call themselves telecoms, Ian Dix of the long-distance company LCI International argued, "There is no difference between voice delivered over LCI or an ISP packet network," reported the Inter@ctive Week Online Web site.
America Online's Jill Lesser disagreed, saying that Internet providers already pay indirectly into the fund. "All the charges we pay [to carriers] include the universal service contributions," she said.
Inter@ctive Week said the debate revisits arguments made last May when the FCC decided to allow ISPs to avoid paying access fees to common carriers. The FCC must submit a report to Congress reviewing that decision on April 10.
Posted February 23, 1998.
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