A court recently ordered the Public Utility Commission to restore monies to the Texas Universal Service Fund. The PUC responded by hiking the fund 3.3 to 24 percent.
The fund pays for service in the state's rural areas and it had been dwindling for the last two years. The PUC took action and the new rate began at the beginning of the month.
Mark Seale is Executive Director of the Texas Telephone Association. It represents 43 rural phone companies statewide. He says the money stopped flowing for the last two years.
Rural providers did their best to not let it affect their customers. "But they didn't build any new network and they didn't hire any new folks. They didn't put on extra workers on holidays or after storms to rebuild because they couldn't afford it, because their state support had gone away. Now that the state support is coming back, we hope those programs, those projects that were put on hold and the expansion that we need in order to deliver what will be even never and more broadband funding to rural Texas, all of that can get back on track after being on hold for two years."
This also ensures locals can always have access to 911.
We may not realize how rural, rural Texas can be. Seale says "We have places in this state where it costs $600 a month per line just to operate after those facilities are built because they are so remote. One of our phone companies, Alpine, Texas is headquarters to Big Bend Telephone. They serve the entire Big Bend area including Big Bend National Park. Their average customer per square mile is point two. It costs a lot to serve those areas."
Seale says the fund is being replenished to the tune of $250 million dollars. And while that sounds like you'll take a huge hit, you won't. He says the Service fund was 40 to 50 cents a month.
Depending on your plan, it will likely increase to about three dollars a month. He says the hike was not an action the rural phone companies or customers asked for. "That is an action that our rural companies are trying to work with the PUC to come up with another way to get restitution out of this lawsuit over a longer period of time at a lower rate so it's not so dramatic an increase."
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