> Recently, the FCC and USDA, among others, have created massive funds in an effort to deploy broadband in underserved areas. The Universal Service Fund was es

> Recently, the FCC and USDA, among others, have created massive funds in an effort to deploy broadband in underserved areas. The Universal Service Fund was established mid-'90s to get fund telecommunications connections to schools and libraries in rural areas (in the same way the Rural Electrification Act did in the early 1900s). Funds were paid out through 2000 or so but I haven't heard of any contracts being built using USF funds since then. I will however point out that you can still see this surcharge on your phone bill. I also agree that these contracts tended to favor huge CLECs (versus huge cable companies back then) and that more consideration should be given to "mom and pop" shops. EDIT: The focus on schools and libraries was an effort to get service into these geographic areas with the idea that once it was there, consumers would be targeted as customers who could then "just connect". That's when we also learned that the "last mile" was way more expensive (often politically) than anticipated. In the cable industry, the response was to upgrade plant equipment and create/adopt the DOCSIS standard for data transmission over coax. DISCLAIMER: I was a member of two of the committees that helped write specific portions of the DOCSIS 2.0 specification.