Shocker: More Than Half The Money Paid Into High Cost Universal Service Fund Not Going To Provide Universal Service
from the how-do-you-spell-boondoggle? dept
For years, we’ve pointed out that the “Universal Service Fund,” is a huge boondoggle. Basically, we all pay a tax on our phone bills that’s supposed to go towards this “universal service fund,” which telcos are supposed to use to provide phone service to rural areas. But, as we’ve been pointing out for over a decade there’s little evidence that’s what happens. There’s almost no oversight of the program, and there are many stories of waste and abuse. The latest, in a long line, is that 59 cents of every dollar that goes to the big telcos from this USF… does not go towards universal service. Instead, the telcos just take that money and do other stuff with it. So, basically, this is a way for the telcos to hide much higher rates through a bogus government “tax,” that isn’t used for its expressed purpose. That seems like a class action lawsuit waiting to happen.
Filed Under: boondoggle, telcos, universal service fund
