USF

Still a Long Road for Universal Service Reform, Panelists Say

The fund's constitutionality is being challenged at the Supreme Court, and lawmakers are looking for new revenue source besides voice.

Jake Neenan

Mar 13, 2025 — 2 min read

From left: Jade Piros de Carvalho, vice president of broadband advocacy and partnerships at Bonfire Infrastructure Group; Diana Eisner, vice president of regulatory affairs at USTelecom; Carol Mattey, founder of Mattey Consulting; Johannes Baur, director of the Quello Center for Media and Information Policy at Michigan State; Meredith Williams, assistant vice president of executive branch outreach at AT&T; Mike Saperstein, senior vice president of government affairs at Wireless Infrastructure Association; and Angie Kronenberg, founder of Sligo Solutions

DALLAS, March 13, 2025 – Even if the Universal Service Fund survives an ongoing legal challenge unscathed, there’s still no end in sight on contribution reform, experts said on Wednesday.

“Even if there was a political consensus on the way forward, it would take years to actually operationalize it,” said Carol Mattey, a former senior FCC official who led efforts to modernize USF in 2009. “Going from the high-level agreement, ‘We’re going to do x,’ to setting up the systems to collect information and actually calculate who pays what? That takes at least a year.”

The roughly $8 billion-per-year program supports building and maintaining rural networks, plus internet and phone discounts for low-income households, schools and libraries, and health care centers.

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USF FCC Carol Mattey USAC Supreme Court Diana Eisner Angie Kronenberg Brandan Carr Jessica Rosenworcel