Should the universal service fee fund broadband for rural areas?

Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns has introduced a bill to revise the universal service program, allowing funds from this program to help subsidize broadband and other high-speed telecom services for rural areas. According to an article published in The Missoulian and reported in The Rural Blog, this change would mean more telecom-related services (including Internet voice, cable Internet and broadband) would have to pay into the universal service charge. (See http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2006/02/11/news/mtregional/news08.txt)

In a related story (also from The Rural Blog), Drew Clark of National Journal’s Technology Daily reports that broadband Web service is becoming an economic necessity for rural American communities. Without broadband, these communities are unable to meet the growing technological needs of businesses, and businesses are being driven to relocate to areas that can provide them with proper technology. (See http://www.RuralJournalism.org, click on “Rural Blog” and access the blog for Monday, Feb. 13, 2006.)

Are you willing to pay the universal service charge for your cable Internet/broadband services to help rural communities in America become more technologically and economically competitive? Is the universal service charge the answer for making high-speed/broadband Internet affordable for more Americans? What other options are there?