What is “Universal Service”? Does it have something to do with the USF charge on my telephone bill?
A. Universal Service embodies the concept that telecommunications is such a critical service that everyone should have access to it. Since the passage of the first communications law, The Communications Act of 1934, universal service has been a public policy implemented by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC based this policy on the introductory paragraph of the Act, which states that communications should be available to all the people of the United States. In the monopoly environment of that time, regulatory bodies generally arranged it so that the cost to serve high-cost and low-cost customers was averaged and everyone paid the same rate. They also allowed long distance and business rates to be set above cost so as to keep rates down for residential and high-cost areas. Universal Service went from public policy to law when it was added as Section 254 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The law, which promotes deregulation and competition also charges the FCC with
