IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/telpol/v37y2013i9p773-793.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mapping the field: Retrospective of the federal universal service programs

Author

Listed:
  • Holt, Lynne
  • Galligan, Mary

Abstract

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (1996 Act) established the framework for four federal universal service programs: the High-Cost program, the Low-Income program, the Schools and Libraries (E-rate) program, and the Rural Health Care program. During the past 15 years, these programs have been examined from a number of perspectives in an attempt to measure their efficiency and effectiveness, including the funding mechanisms that support them. The Federal Communications Commission is in the process of restructuring the universal service programs to move support to broadband-based technologies. This is an opportune time to examine what is known about whether these programs have met the universal service objectives of the 1996 Act and have efficiently and effectively used universal service funding. To that end, this article surveys both oversight reports by federal government agencies and academic research literature drawn from a variety of sources to identify areas of concern regarding the mission, implementation, and impact of the federal universal service programs and support mechanisms. The article also includes research findings on how the economic incentives created by the federal universal service programs affect corporate investment and deployment decisions and consumer service and technology adoption decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Holt, Lynne & Galligan, Mary, 2013. "Mapping the field: Retrospective of the federal universal service programs," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 773-793.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:37:y:2013:i:9:p:773-793
    DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2012.03.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030859611200047X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.telpol.2012.03.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gideon, Carolyn & Gabel, David, 2011. "Disconnecting: Understanding decline in universal service," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 737-751, September.
    2. repec:bla:jindec:v:48:y:2000:i:3:p:305-29 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Gregory L. Rosston & Scott J. Savage & Bradley S. Wimmer, 2008. "The Effect of Private Interests on Regulated Retail and Wholesale Prices," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(3), pages 479-501, August.
    4. H. Cremer & F. Gasmi & A. Grimaud & J. J. Laffont, 2001. "Universal Service: An economic perspective," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(1), pages 5-43, March.
    5. Austan Goolsbee & Jonathan Guryan, 2006. "The Impact of Internet Subsidies in Public Schools," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(2), pages 336-347, May.
    6. Rodini, Mark & Ward, Michael R. & Woroch, Glenn A., 0. "Going mobile: substitutability between fixed and mobile access," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(5-6), pages 457-476, June.
    7. Daniel Ackerberg & Michael Riordan & Gregory Rosston & Bradley Wimmer, 2008. "Low-Income Demand for Local Telephone Service: Effects of Lifeline and Linkup," Discussion Papers 07-032, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    8. Hauge, Janice A. & Chiang, Eric P. & Jamison, Mark A., 0. "Whose call is it? Targeting universal service programs to low-income households' telecommunications preferences," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(3-4), pages 129-145, April.
    9. Valletti, Tommaso M & Hoernig, Steffen & Barros, Pedro P, 2002. "Universal Service and Entry: The Role of Uniform Pricing and Coverage Constraints," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 169-190, March.
    10. Wimmer, Bradley S. & Rosston, Gregory L., 2005. "Local telephone rate structures: before and after the Act," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 13-34, January.
    11. Mueller, Milton, 1993. "Universal service in telephone history : A reconstruction," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 352-369, July.
    12. Gerald R. Faulhaber & Christiaan Hogendorn, 2000. "The Market Structure of Broadband Telecommunications," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 305-329, September.
    13. Hudson, Heather E., 0. "Universal access: what have we learned from the E-rate?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(3-4), pages 309-321, April.
    14. Downes, Tom & Greenstein, Shane, 2007. "Understanding why universal service obligations may be unnecessary: The private development of local Internet access markets," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 2-26, July.
    15. Cherry, Barbara A. & Bauer, Johannes M., 2002. "Institutional arrangements and price rebalancing: empirical evidence from the United States and Europe," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 495-517, December.
    16. Garbacz, Christopher & Thompson, Herbert G, 2002. "Estimating Telephone Demand with State Decennial Census Data from 1970-1990," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 317-329, May.
    17. Albery, Brooks, 1995. "What level of dialtone penetration constitutes 'universal service'?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 365-380, July.
    18. Berg, Sanford V. & Jiang, Liangliang & Lin, Chen, 2011. "Universal service subsidies and cost overstatement: Evidence from the U.S. telecommunications sector," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 583-591, August.
    19. Garbacz, Christopher & Thompson, Herbert Jr., 2005. "Universal telecommunication service: A world perspective," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 495-512, October.
    20. Berg, Sanford V. & Jiang, Liangliang & Lin, Chen, 2011. "Incentives for cost shifting and misreporting: US rural universal service subsidies, 1991–2002," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 287-295.
    21. Hausman, Jerry, 2000. "Efficiency Effects on the U.S. Economy from Wireless Taxation," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 53(n. 3), pages 733-42, September.
    22. Gabel, David, 0. "Broadband and universal service," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(6-7), pages 327-346, July.
    23. Zolnierek, James & Clausen, Torsten, 2010. "Local telephone rate structure and telephone penetration: A universal service perspective," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 153-163, May.
    24. Zolnierek, James, 0. "Loop density and telephone company cost: Panel data evidence," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(3-4), pages 262-272, April.
    25. Burton Mark & Macher Jeffrey & Mayo John W, 2007. "Understanding Participation in Social Programs: Why Don't Households Pick up the Lifeline?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-28, November.
    26. Garbacz, Christopher & Thompson, Herbert G, Jr, 2003. "Estimating Telephone Demand with State Decennial Census Data from 1970-1990: Update with 2000 Data," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 373-378, November.
    27. Alleman, James & Rappoport, Paul & Banerjee, Aniruddha, 0. "Universal service: A new definition?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1-2), pages 86-91, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rendon Schneir, Juan & Xiong, Yupeng, 2016. "A cost study of fixed broadband access networks for rural areas," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 755-773.
    2. Edward J. Oughton & Ashutosh Jha, 2021. "Supportive 5G Infrastructure Policies are Essential for Universal 6G: Assessment using an Open-source Techno-economic Simulation Model utilizing Remote Sensing," Papers 2102.08086, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2021.
    3. Fan Wang & Mingfeng Wang & Shichen Yuan, 2021. "Spatial Diffusion of E-Commerce in China’s Counties: Based on the Perspective of Regional Inequality," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-17, October.
    4. Xia, Jun, 2016. "Universal service policy in China (I): Institutional elements and ecosystem," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 242-252.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hauge, Janice A. & Jamison, Mark A. & Todd Jewell, R., 2008. "Discounting telephone service: An examination of participation in the Lifeline Assistance Program using panel data," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 135-149, June.
    2. Daniel Ackerberg & Michael Riordan & Gregory Rosston & Bradley Wimmer, 2008. "Low-Income Demand for Local Telephone Service: Effects of Lifeline and Linkup," Discussion Papers 07-032, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    3. Berg, Sanford V. & Jiang, Liangliang & Lin, Chen, 2011. "Incentives for cost shifting and misreporting: US rural universal service subsidies, 1991–2002," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 287-295.
    4. Ackerberg, Daniel A. & DeRemer, David R. & Riordan, Michael H. & Rosston, Gregory L. & Wimmer, Bradley S., 2014. "Estimating the impact of low-income universal service programs," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 84-98.
    5. Chiang, Eric P. & Hauge, Janice A., 2013. "The impact of non-neutral federal regulatory policy on competition," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 1142-1149.
    6. Nicholas Bloom & Renata Lemos & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2015. "Does Management Matter in schools?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(584), pages 647-674, May.
    7. Garbacz, Christopher & Thompson, Herbert Jr., 2005. "Universal telecommunication service: A world perspective," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 495-512, October.
    8. Jayakar, Krishna & Park, Eun-A, 2019. "Reforming the lifeline program: Regulatory federalism in action?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 67-75.
    9. Eric P. Chiang & Janice A. Hauge, 2007. "Funding Universal Service: The Effect of Telecommunications Subsidy Programs on Competition and Retail Prices," Working Papers 07-08, NET Institute, revised Aug 2007.
    10. Biancini, Sara, 2011. "Behind the scenes of the telecommunications miracle: An empirical analysis of the Indian market," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 238-249, April.
    11. Pérez Montes, Carlos, 2013. "Regulatory bias in the price structure of local telephone service," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 462-476.
    12. Gautier Axel & Poudou Jean-Christophe, 2014. "Reforming the Postal Universal Service," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(4), pages 453-477, December.
    13. Ford, George S., 2021. "Subsidies and substitution: An empirical study of the lifeline program," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1).
    14. Dolente, Cosimo & Galea, John Joseph & Leporelli, Claudio, 2010. "Next Generation Access and Digital Divide: Opposite Sides of the Same Coin?," 21st European Regional ITS Conference, Copenhagen 2010: Telecommunications at new crossroads - Changing value configurations, user roles, and regulation 9, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    15. Michael Thacker & Wesley Wilson, 2015. "Telephony choices and the evolution of cell phones," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 1-25, August.
    16. Ward, Michael R. & Woroch, Glenn A., 2010. "The effect of prices on fixed and mobile telephone penetration: Using price subsidies as natural experiments," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 18-32, March.
    17. Nucciarelli, Alberto & Sadowski, Bert M. & Ruhle, Ernst-Olav, 2012. "Should next generation access networks fall within the scope of universal service? A EU 27 perspective," 23rd European Regional ITS Conference, Vienna 2012 60393, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    18. Carlos Perez Montes, 2012. "Regulatory bias in the price structure of local telephone services," Working Papers 1201, Banco de España.
    19. Thomas S. Conkling, 2020. "Compliance and competition with heterogeneous service providers: the federal Lifeline program," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 74-104, February.
    20. Steffen Hoernig, 2006. "Should uniform pricing constraints be imposed on entrants?," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 199-216, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:37:y:2013:i:9:p:773-793. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30471/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.