Consider 'End State' of High Cost Fund in Future of USF: FSF

The FCC's "failure to account for all of the known sources of federal funds" for broadband projects in its report to Congress on the future of the USF "necessarily casts doubt on its conclusions as to the future relevance and need for" the high cost fund, blogged Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long Tuesday (see 2208160055). The "end state" for the high cost fund should be defined in dollars, Long said. "The moment when federal subsidies reach that specific financial target is the moment when the goal of the high cost fund has been achieved." The report "effectively ignores" the American Rescue Plan Act's $360 billion, which included some funding for broadband projects, he said, and its "narrow focus" on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act "paints an incomplete picture of progress."