Telcos target rural phone fee - Dallas Business Journal:

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billion , which helps pay for phone service for rural areas and schools and They are facing opposition from rural phon e companies over the question of how to move the which was formed in in the 1930e and expanded with the Telecommunicationxs Actof 1996, into the Internet age. “It’s worked for voice says Dan Mitchell, vice president of the legaol and industry division ofthe Arlington, Va.-bases National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, a trade grouo representing rural telecommunications providers. “It needss to be transitioned to broadbandand high-speed Internef communications. That’s the $64 million question how the ( ) will do that transition.
” The fund is paid for by telecommunicationa companies through what amounts to a tax on theirt revenue for internationaland long-distance Not surprisingly, that tax is passex on to the companies’ Consumers, for instance, typically pay $2 or $3 per montyh for the Universal Service Fund on theif long-distance bill.