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A Year of Challenges for the Universal Service Fund

Broadband Breakfast

Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit declared, in a 9 to 7 en banc decision, that the USF’s funding mechanism unconstitutional in a potentially consequential case brought by Consumers’ Research. In July , the U.S.

En Banc 109
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The We Don’t Want to Pay for Universal Telecommunications Access Litigants Finally Hit Paydirt

Telefrieden

The 5 th Circuit En Banc decision reeks of partisan, doctrinal overreach. Now that universal surface funding has substantially increased to support broadband access, the right-wing rails against so-called Obama Phones and unconstitutional taxation.

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High Court Watcher: SCOTUS Might Not Want to Upend Universal Service

Broadband Breakfast

“Adding the question thus suggests that at least some justices are looking for a way, on their own, to wipe away the en banc Fifth Circuit’s ruling without even reaching” the legal question at the heart of the case, he wrote.  That’s the percentage of interstate voice revenue telecoms pay into the fund.

En Banc 102