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I've never heard of it for power, but I've had CELAC carriers use USF money for delivering telecom service where there was none.

because the power company can charge for poles, which could be $10k each. The power company can't charge for the transformer or the lines if it is a home. They can (and do) charge for those if it's not a home, so you could be $100k into a transformer and lines for say 8 poles plus the $80k for the poles, which might be $180k. It's more like $80k if that power is run to a home. Even less if you poles are shorter.

I should add that is for declared utilities, not co-ops. Co-ops have different rules, and I'm not sure what they are as far as installation charges.

LRL wrote:I've never heard of it for power, but I've had CELAC carriers use USF money for delivering telecom service where there was none.

GOD I HATE THE ENTIRE EXISTANCE OF USF!!!!!!!!!

Welfare for Telcos!

yeah, USF is rediculous. What's worse is when another local wISP is owned by a state legislature member and they have special access to USF :/

USF comes with strings though. In the last two years our state has given millions in free right-a-ways to the big telcos, but I could have covered all those areas for 300k. ARG!

There was a FTTH buildout *near* a nearby city. The City itself is plagued by poor DSL and Shoddy Cable service, but there is a 10Gb fiber backbone running basically down city limits and can only be hooked up by to by residences and business outside the city limits. They can get 100Mbps fiber and a 1/2 mile away in the city limits they can get 1.5Mbps DSL. That was something like $4.5Mil I think to build out. That was a combined USF and Obama stimulus deal.