ReasonedResponse.com

I'm perplexed about Universal Service.

On one hand, it has achieved wonders in ensuring that Americans everywhere have reasonable access to necessary telecommunications service, and has helped to make our telecom the envy of the world.

On the other hand, it is a bloated, fraud-ridden, poorly designed, hidden tax on consumers that is desperately in need of reform and rethinking.  Whether we expand it, kill it, roll it up or roll it down, something clearly needs to be done.

I'm equally perplexed, therefore, about what to think of the FCC's decision to cap funding for rural cell phone support while it and the Congress mull a more permanent reform strategy.

Capping the runaway expenditures is clearly a relief for consumers -- particularly those who don't benefit from rural cell phone deployment but must nonethless foot the bill for it.  It likewise benefits telecomm companies who are busy deploying in less rural areas and shouldn't have to sacrifice their time and money to serve markets they don't serve.

But then there is the question of broadband.

Cellular service in rural areas is often accompanied by deployment of 3G broadband services, and this is creating a quiet revolution in rural broadband.  Where you still cannot get a cable modem connection or DSL, you can often get an HSDPA or EVDO signal.  And while this is still first-generation stuff, advances like EVDO Rev. A are making it better every day.

Cellular broadband is reaching the unreachable.  It is delivering higher speeds, greater competition and more reliable Internet service to rural areas in ways that can truly deliver on the promise of broadband in the very near future.  But getting there will take a lot of investment -- much of which can't easily be justified to private investors or corporate shareholders.  And that is exactly the kind of situation Universal Service was intended to address in the first place.

On reflection, I don't have a problem with capping cell phone expenditures in the short term, if for no other reason than to help keep costs from running even further away.  But in doing so, I'd like to see more acknowledgment of the value of cellular broadband for rural America, and some commitment to ensure that it gets its fair share of attention as well as scrutiny.