Consumer Groups Tell Congress, Don’t Abandon Universal Service Programs

Washington DC - Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and Consumer Action filed comments in response to a request from the Congressional Universal Service Fund Working Group. Dr. Mark Cooper, Senior Fellow at CFA and author of the comments stated the following:

• Broadband access and use are immensely important to individual households and the U.S. economy.
• The FCC and the U.S. have made significant progress toward the goal of universal service as it pertains to broadband.
• However, there remains a significant, even remarkable, shortfall in achieving universal service as we came to define it in the pre-broadband era.
• The FCC has programs in place to achieve the goal, but the challenges remain substantial.
• Thus, above all, U.S. policy should not consider shrinking or abandoning the universal service programs; those programs should be expanded and improved.

Dr. Cooper continued, "We have not achieved universal service, and smartphones are just too expensive to provide the functionality that households need for full participation in a broadband society. Smartphones as universal service turns those without broadband into "second class citizens," paying more for less until they have truly affordable service available. "Second class citizenship" was never the goal of universal service. The effort to achieve universal broadband connectivity must not be abandoned because of smartphones or the underserved will be turned into a permanently disadvantaged category."