Assistance program
Universal Service Fund - High Cost
$48.6 Billion committed in FY2020–FY2026
- Agency
- Federal Communications Commission, Federal Communications Commission
- Assistance
- Not Applicable
- CFDA number
- 32.002
- What it does
- Universal service has been defined by Congress as “an evolving level of telecommunications services . . . taking into account advances in telecommunications and information technologies and services.†47 U.S.C. 254(c). Universal service support generally is distributed only to eligible telecommunications carriers and must be used “only for the provision, maintenance, and upgrading of facilities and services for which the support is intended.†47 U.S.C. 254(e). In addition, policies for the advancement and preservation of universal service must be based on certain principles established by Congress. See 47 U.S.C. 254(b). Consistent with these statutory provisions, the FCC has established the Universal Service Fund, which disburses support for the provision of telecommunications services, as well as other services and facilities (including broadband) for high-cost areas, schools and libraries, rural health care providers, and low-income consumers.
- Who benefits
- Beneficiaries are broadband and voice customers located in high cost areas. The USF Administrator maintains the Connect America Fund Map (https://data.usac.org/publicreports/caf-map/) which illustrates whether a location is in an eligible area or not, as well as reported deployed locations.
- Who applies
- Applicants must be an Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC). Wireless and wireline carriers that are ETCs and that comply with requirements established by the FCC for the High Cost Program.
- Authorized by
- The FCC established the Universal Service Fund (USF) pursuant to section 254 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, which requires the preservation and advancement of universal service to be based on certain principles, including access to telecommunications and advanced …
- 47 U.S.C. § 254
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments