Quality of life challenges, presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, emphasized the importance in achieving progress in making access to voice and broadband data services widespread and affordable. The virus forced nearly everyone to shelter in place, and to rely on wired and wireless technologies for remote access to education, telehealth, government services, social networks, ecommerce, entertainment, and communications.Despite greater certainty about the need to bridge the so-called Digital Divide during the Covid-19 pandemic, many rural locales in the United States had no terrestrial broadband option, or lacked a critical mass of residents having the discretionary income and digital literacy skills enabling broadband subscribership. Addressing an even greater need for improved access, service providers, as well as federal, state, and local government agencies, achieved significant progress in bridging the Digital Divide during the pandemic, thanks to generous grants, subsidies, and loan guarantees. With uncharacteristic speed, Congress allocated billions of dollars, much of it quickly available as one-time monetary transfers. Unfortunately, few legislators, regulators, and policy makers have considered what to do after the pandemic becomes manageable and "emergency" funding programs wind down. This paper assesses post-Covid, universal service sustainability issues arising when both service providers and subscribers must bear a higher percentage of ongoing operational expenses and necessary investments in network upgrades. Even before the onset of Covid-19, existing universal service funding programs risked unsustainability, because the subsidy burden continued to grow substantially, largely due to government decisions specifying new beneficiaries and mandating subsidies for both basic voice and enhanced data service, such as high-speed broadband access to the Internet. Additionally, existing law imposes a hefty monthly Universal Service Fund ("USF") contribution burden solely on the carriers generating revenues from voice telephone services. These telephone companies can lawfully pass the USF contribution burden onto subscribers with inclusion of a billing line item. Because ventures providing data services qualified for a subsidy burden exemption, customers of "plain old telephone services" solely bear a growing financial burden that many consider unfair and burdensome.The paper identifies how Congress, the federal Executive Branch, state and local governments, and carriers can forestall likely, measurable declines in broadband geographical penetration and subscription rates achieved during the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper specifies reforms needed to make ongoing universal service subsidy programs sustainable and more effective in achieving additional progress in bridging the Digital Divide, as emergency grant programs wind down.
