Make Netflix Pay for Universal Service?

Mark Cooper, director of research for the Consumer Federation of America, thinks Netflix should have to pay into the Universal Service Fund. To the extent that the Federal Communications Commission is looking to shift USF funding to support broadband, rather than voice, that notion, though sure to be resisted by application providers, also is likely to receive support from access providers.

It would not be unusual, for example, to hear executives from rural phone service providers say that application providers driving bandwidth consumption by consumers should also share in the support burdens.

The FCC is trying to migrate USF subsidies to fund broadband rather than phone service this year. The question of who must contribute into the fund now comes into view precisely because of the shift to a broader business ecosystem, where most of the new value and revenue accrue to application providers rather than the access providers.

Debates over USF and other support mechanisms always are highly contentious, but in the past have largely pitted various parts of the access provider community against other members of the community. These days, though those sorts of issues remain, at least for voice services, there is new attention being paid toward spreading a support obligation more broadly.

Consumer group wants to tax Netflix to pay for rural broadband - The Hill's Hillicon Valley