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Costs, Interconnection, Low-Income, Markets (Rural, Urban, Residential,
Business), Prices, Revenues, Services, Universal Service, Technology |
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Part of a series on universal service, Who
Pays Whom, provided the first clear policy information subsidies for rural
high-cost areas and for low-income households: who pays them and who
receives them.
This paper defines subsides and support
mechanisms in the traditional telecommunications industries that remain at
issue as industries converge. These include rate and cost averaging,
financial assistance, obligation to serve, and cost allocation.
Simple flow charts track 1989 dollars
associated with various mechanisms from revenues collected on customer
bills to payments to the eligible companies. Mechanisms include access
charges (including assistance to keep state rates low), assistance to
rural areas, and assistance to low-income households. Who Pays Whom
defines issues (including universal service, new technology deployment,
and interconnection) and raises questions that need to be answered,
setting the framework for the research that follows.
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