The Tex. PUC recommended that the state legislature next year ref...
The Tex. PUC recommended that the state legislature next year reform state universal service fund high-cost subsidy programs. The PUC adopted a staff draft report required by a 2005 law ordering the PUC to study the state’s 11 universal…
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service programs and suggest changes to the 2007 legislature. The report (Case 318630) concluded the large-company high- cost support fund, involved in 75% of state USF disbursements, paid a disproportionate share (96%) of its $425 million in payments to the state’s 5 largest incumbent telcos. The PUC said the large-company program is “overdue for updating” to resize or retarget support. The PUC said the small-company high-cost program should get light legislative review, particularly on reasonableness of basic exchange rates and access lines’ eligibility for state subsidies. The report noted rural incumbents’ rates haven’t changed since the state USF fund’s 1999 inception. The report said the other 9 state universal service programs achieve state policy goals and “fulfill their state purposes effectively.”