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Published on: 12/31/2007
Last Visited: 1/1/2008
"They found a gravy train and jumped on," said Geoff Feiss, general manager of the Helena-based Montana Telecommunications Association.
The fund has swelled from $15 million in 2003 to more than $7 billion this year, according to Feiss.He and other opponents say wireless companies are driving the increase, with the share going to cellular providers exploding from $15 million in 2003 to $1.2 billion in 2007.
In the majority of cases, the money isn't going to the unserved areas it was intended for, Feiss and other critics of the USF policy contend.
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Feiss said the argument that that area is underserved "doesn't hold water."
He contends that other cellular providers are serving those areas or are planning to serve them with or without the support of the USF subsidy.
"(Triangle has) legitimate business goals in mind and our opposition is not so much to their business case as to the national policy issues around Universal Service," Feiss said.
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"If we want to make (rural cellular service) a Universal Service goal, Congress would have to change the law and they'd have to come up with a few more billion dollars to make it happen," Feiss said.
He also questions whether taxpayers should be subsidizing both landline and wireless service for the same area.
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But Feiss, with the MTA, said giving the subsidy to consumers would divert it from its intended purpose, which is building infrastructure.
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Although Murray, with the Consumers Union, supports reverse auctioning, Feiss said there are "lots of concerns in there about how it could possibly be implemented."
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