I asked Roslyn Layton PhD, of Strand Consult, on the Good, Bad and Ugly Telco Podcast after I read the Strand Consult Research Note on why Hyperscalers need to come under some form of Regulation and should contribute to the Universal Service Fund (US).

To quote Strand’s Research Note

While profiting significantly from the $9 billion USF, Big Tech does not contribute to the program. Instead, the USF is funded from fees collected on traditional voice subscriptions, which are disappearing.  To fund USF, a surcharge of 36 percent of the subscription cost is added to the bill for certain telecom services. This charge is born mainly by elderly persons on fixed incomes. However Big Tech could fund the USF at a rate below 1 percent because of the growing profitability and revenue its services for cloud, software and advertising.

Roslyn lays out the case very well in a compelling argument.  And as always, she plays out with a great song appropriate to the topic.  Enjoy.

You can find the full Research Note here:

https://strandconsult.dk/ending-big-techs-free-ride-on-usf-reforming-the-universal-service-fund-to-serve-consumers-and-america/

Roslyn can be contacted via his website or via LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/roslynlayton/

And

https://strandconsult.dk/

If you have an interesting topic or story you’d like to talk about on the Good, Bad and Ugly Podcast in the areas of Innovation, Product Marketing, Market Trends, contact me via LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paddyflynn/