Preserving Universal Service in the Age of IP

Thank you very much for inviting me to speak with you today. Recently, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been spending a great deal of time and energy considering the best, most appropriate regulation of broadband networks and IP-enabled services.1 Today, I want to focus on an important aspect of our discussions. Namely, what are the implications of the digital revolution for our universal service program? The ongoing migration from traditional circuit-switched voice services to packet-switched communications services poses a number of challenges to the existing universal service regime. Some of these challenges are not new; for example, we have been considering changes to the contribution methodology (how we collect funding) and distribution rules for years.2 But the accelerating emergence of IPenabled services brings many of the challenges we face into sharper focus. I will begin with some background information about the FCC’s universal service support mechanism, and then discuss some of the key public policy issues affected by the migration to broadband networks and IP-enabled services.