DC Circuit Appears Split Over FCC Broadband Subsidy Dispute

The federal appeals court in Washington seemed divided over whether a Federal Communications Commission scheme for subsidizing phone and broadband access in rural areas is constitutional.

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit at argument on Friday weighed a challenge to the FCC’s system of collecting fees from telecom companies to pay for the program, the Universal Service Fund, under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The fees are typically passed onto consumer phone bills and are administered by a private nonprofit, the Universal Service Administrative Company.

The challengers, led by Washington-based non-profit Consumers’ Research ...