Supreme Court takes up $8B phone and internet subsidy for rural areas

The issue is not if the fund is needed or not, it is that congress never specified how much the Universal Service Fund tax would be. The FCC keeps raising the tax rate. 10% of your mobile phone bill now goes to this fund that seems was decided by bureaucrats at the FCC and not by Congress. If the court strikes it down, then Congress will have to step in, which seems appropriate.

If the USF is struck down two things will happen 1. Elon will get feweer subsidies. Starlink is enriched heavily by USF 2. Rural areas will be continue to have terrible options for terrestrial services. 3. There may be a resurgence of municipal-owned internet but the ISPs seem to have sued that out of existence to date.

I don&#x27;t know where the USF monies go but it certainly isn&#x27;t here.<p>I suspect the likes of AT&amp;T and Google get the lion&#x27;s share and then through sleight of hand it somehow funds build outs of fiber in large metro areas. If it weren&#x27;t for the local independent telcos scratching and clawing for a few crumbs, there wouldn&#x27;t be any FTH in rural areas.<p>A few years back .gov allocated considerable funds for expanding, presumably, FTH in &quot;rural&quot; areas. The state I live in did the same. So far in the AT&amp;T monopoly, not an inch of fiber has been plowed that I can see. Most of the funds have probably been laundered back to the politicians and the status quo remains.<p>A new WISP has been putting up sites over the past several months in parts of the AT&amp;T service area with no other terrestrial service available. This, even in the age of Star Link. I doubt they would be doing so unless they had a pretty good idea that no FTH will be available for five to ten years or at least long enough to amortize their investment.<p>Like most taxes levied on We The People, the USF is a PR stunt intended to buy votes.

They should kill it. It makes no sense that the EPA can&#x27;t do it&#x27;s basic job but this shakedown exists.<p>Conservatives haven&#x27;t had to live with the consequences of their decisions. They still get their farming subsidies. Their phone and Internet subsidized. Flood insurance. Countless other programs overwhelmingly help red states.<p>We used to have an agreement in this country. That everyone was going to be better off. Now the conservative story is all about hurting the right people.<p>So let&#x27;s do it. Every state for themselves. Blue states can help other blue states if they want to. Same with red states. Cut off the basic function of the federal government.<p>I&#x27;m tired of my tax dollars helping people who don&#x27;t want what&#x27;s best for me and my family while I go out there and advocate for them.