The American PrePaid Phonecall Association, APPPA, which represents a majority of the prepaid calling market in the U.S., has filed its comments with the FCC in response to an industry input request on the proposed new set of rules for calculating and collecting Universal Service Fees (USF) from prepaid phone call providers and their customers.

The initial purpose of USF was to provide subsidies to consumers in highly inaccessible places such as in rural areas, but has since been expanded to include support for other services including financial support for intercity Internet access.

According to one of the founding members of APPA, Brian Pla, “One of the primary reasons that APPA was formed was to protect the interests of our customers, the consumers of prepaid phone call services.” This means everything the FCC (News - Alert) does to restructure USF must put consumer interests first.

Despite the commission’s and its participants worry about their own concerns, according to Pla, the consuming public must always be the first consideration in any change that needs to be made.

Pla is now the CEO at Auris. Together with its sister company, CIMA (News - Alert), his firm provides hosting services for companies that offer prepaid telephone services.

The FCC’s request for comment included a list of proposed changes and alternatives. APPA’s filing included an urge towards making consumer fairness a primary concern when formulating any USF solution. APPA pointed to the cost that USF contributions would have on service providers which would likely end up in higher end-user pricing. The FCC suggestion to include international revenues in USF was strongly rejected by APPA which saw the unfair burden that would be imposed on the most vulnerable consumers with disproportionately higher levels of contribution.

APPA and FCC will be working together to formulate a new USF policy to help actively advocate for best interests of prepaid phone call providers and its consumers.

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