Connect This is a regular podcast hosted by the Institute for Local Self Reliance, where smart people talk about complicated technology policy issues. Each participant is smart in his/her own silo and those silos shadow each other but they “dumb down” the conversation a little to be understood. So, the lawyers, the engineers and the policy wonks all use English! Acronyms are explained – but the assumption is that you know what broadband is. It’s rarely a 101 discussion; it’s graduate level but interdisciplinary.

The other day they took on the Universal Service Fund (USF) and its constitutional standing. Sounds wonky – it is. But it’s important to schools, providers, customers who get charged USF and the ones who reap the benefits. RDOF could be in a sticky situation.

Here’s the blurb and video from the ILSR… (pro tip: I walk while I listen so I don’t get distracted and I soak up the MN summer while I can!)

On July 24, 2024, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 9-7 that the Universal Service Fund is unconstitutional.

The decision throws a whole raft of federal broadband programs – including those which help schools pay for connectivity, those which help homes pay for home Internet access, and more – into a state of uncertainty.

All signs point to a stop at the Supreme Court for final ruling on the future of the program. On the most recent episode of the Connect This! Show, hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter (USI Fiber) were joined by regular guests Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting) and Kim McKinley (UTOPIA Fiber) as well as special guest Casey Lide (Keller and Heckman Law Firm) to talk about the decision. They discuss the impact of the decision in the long-term, including how the USF fits into the jigsaw puzzle of federal broadband funding programs and what we can expect to see if the decision is upheld.