Whose Call is It? Targeting Universal Service Programs to Low-Income Households' Telecommunications Preferences

Telecommunications Policy, Vol. 33, No. 3-4, pp. 129-145

44 Pages Posted: 8 Jan 2009 Last revised: 25 Dec 2013

See all articles by Janice Alane Hauge

Janice Alane Hauge

University of North Texas

Eric P. Chiang

Florida Atlantic University

Mark A Jamison

University of Florida - Warrington College of Business Administration, Public Utility Research Center

Date Written: 2009

Abstract

Do universal service programs give customers what they want? This paper uses new survey data to study low-income households' telecommunications choices in the United States and to consider the degree to which such households' preferences are addressed by existing universal service programs. The research shows that households that choose only one form of telecommunications increasingly are choosing a mobile phone, while those that choose to have both modes of communications are shifting their usage towards their mobile phones. These trends are less pronounced among higher-income households. One implication for universal service policy is that traditional subsidies for landline phones are increasingly ineffective in reaching low-income households such subsidies are designed to help; subsidies for acquiring and using mobile phone services might be more beneficial to low-income households than traditional subsidies for landline phones.

Keywords: telecommunications, low-income, universal service, mobile

JEL Classification: L52, L96, O11

Suggested Citation

Hauge, Janice Alane and Chiang, Eric P. and Jamison, Mark A., Whose Call is It? Targeting Universal Service Programs to Low-Income Households' Telecommunications Preferences (2009). Telecommunications Policy, Vol. 33, No. 3-4, pp. 129-145 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1324281

Janice Alane Hauge

University of North Texas ( email )

1155 Union Circle #311457
Denton, TX 76203
United States
940-565-2573 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://https://economics.unt.edu/

Eric P. Chiang

Florida Atlantic University ( email )

777 Glades Rd
Boca Raton, FL 33431
United States

Mark A. Jamison (Contact Author)

University of Florida - Warrington College of Business Administration, Public Utility Research Center ( email )

PO Box 117142
Gainesville, FL 32611
United States
352-392-6148 (Phone)
352-392-7796 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://warrington.ufl.edu/purc/facultyinfo.asp?WEBID=1217

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