NEWS                                                        June 12, 1998
                                    
                             Press Statement
                                   of 
                         Commissioner Susan Ness



Re:   Fifth Order on Reconsideration and Fourth Report and Order, Federal-State 
      Joint Board on Universal Service, CC Docket No. 96-45.

      Today's decision is a difficult one for me.  I am respectful of the concerns that have
been expressed by several of the leading Members of the United States Congress
concerning the FCC's plans to provide universal service support for schools, libraries, and
rural health care.  We have taken their concerns to heart.  I am also respectful of the dozens
of Senators and scores of Representatives who have urged us not to jeopardize the interests
of the thousands of institutions that are now prepared to move forward.  I share these
Members' commitment to the vision embodied in the Snowe-Rockefeller-Exon-Kerrey
provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

      I believe these competing concerns can be accommodated, and I am determined to
do everything in my power to safeguard these programs, while squarely addressing the
concerns of the critics.  Today's decision is but one step in that process.  Ensuring the
completeness and accuracy of consumer bills will be another.

      I embrace the universal service provisions of the Communications Act.  For over two
years, the FCC has worked diligently with our partners, the state commissions, to promote all
of the universal service.  High-cost support is in place, and it is working.  Low-income support
is in place, and it is working.  The school, library, and rural health care systems are in place,
and ready to begin working.  And all of the funds for all of these efforts have been collected
at the same time that aggregate costs for long distance carriers -- who carry about 90
percent of the burden -- were decreased.  

      On July 1, the costs of universal service for long distance companies will not rise by a
single cent.  At the same time, the prices the long distance companies pay for "interstate
access services" will decline by approximately $800 million (in addition to last year's decline
of $1.7 billion).  In a competitive market, lower costs means lower prices.  Consumers have
every reason to expect them -- and to demand them.  But let's not begrudge the fraction of
one percent that is going to a brighter future.