When a customer chooses not to take plain old telephone...
When a customer chooses not to take plain old telephone service on a broadband-capable loop -- instead desiring to take only broadband -- the costs of that loop get reassigned to a category that doesn’t qualify for USF support, officials…
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from NTCA, NECA and the Western Telecommunications Alliance told FCC Wireline Bureau officials Thursday (http://bit.ly/ZxVyuA). “In practical terms, this means that a consumer’s rates for broadband in high-cost areas will increase simply because that consumer might decide that he or she only wants broadband and no longer wants to purchase POTS on that line,” they said. “This result -- denying the availability of USF support and increasing broadband rates based solely upon a rural customer’s choice to purchase only broadband -- significantly undermines consumer freedom of choice, deters broadband adoption, and inhibits technological evolution.” The groups asked the commission to structure a standalone broadband funding mechanism to “fulfill the express and plainly stated intent” of its 2011 reform order.