132 | Business World Magazine |
January 2014
fore Congress on this issue, and our ef-
forts proved to be successful as the FCC
recently spurred an industry solution for
unlocking devices. I hope Congress will
finish the job and pass legislation as well.
So yes, we are strongly focused on the
competitive carriers, but we believe it has
an immediate and an undeniable benefit
to the consumer. And that’s where were
trying to make our mark.
BW: Let’s touch on some of the other
things that are tasking your energy and
expertise these days in terms of public
policy. Can you talk about Universal
Service Fund reform?
BERRY:
Yes, we have been actively
involved in USF reform, the CAF – the
Connect America Fund, and the Mobil-
ity Fund. We are very concerned that the
FCC’s USF Order was far from the defini-
tion of what we would call a reform. The
Order reduced support to wireless carri-
ers by over 60%, which has negatively
impacted competitive carriers – many of
whom depend on this support to compete
and even continue to provide existing
services to consumers in hard-to-reach
areas. Consumers are choosing wireless
services more and more, and wireless
may be in many cases the most efficient
and most cost effective technology, yet
