The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal in a case that alleges the Federal Communications Commission does not have the authority to decide how Universal Service Fund money is used.
Congress gave the FCC the authority to set up the Universal Service Fund in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Consumers pay about $8 billion a year to fund the USF.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FCC’s funding arrangement to subsidize and promote access to phone and broadband services for libraries, rural areas, tribal lands, lower-income Americans and was unconstitutional.
If Supreme Court upholds the ruling, the ruling would upset longstanding funding procedures used to make telecommunications services available in less affluent rural areas.
