Universal Service Fund

The Universal Service Fund (USF) is a system of telecommunications subsidies and fees managed by the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) intended to promote universal access to telecommunications services in the United States. The FCC established the fund in 1997 in compliance with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The fund reported a total of $7.82 billion in disbursements in 2014, divided among its four programs. The fund is supported by charging telecommunications companies a fee which is set quarterly. As of the first quarter of 2016, the rate is 18.2% of a telecom company's interstate and international end-user revenues.