AT&T T-Mobile Acquisition: Impact on RCA Universal Service Fund Subsidies

In this paper, we will show how an expanded AT&T service footprint would challenge the USF subsidy payments to RCA. We will show how we arrived at this conclusion and will show how new FCC rules associated with encouraging broadband build out are more likely to be the source of RCA objections than AT&T’s business plans. Although the USF is unlikely to constitute the complete reason for RCA objections to the AT&T acquisition, it is probable that the subsidy payments explain at least part of the RCA’s concerns.