DAHLONEGA – State lawmakers are eyeing cell phone users, including those living in cities, as a way to raise revenue to help boost broadband in underserved rural areas.

Today, only people with landlines pay what is called the state Universal Access Fund fee, which has helped provide phone service to the state’s hard-to-reach places for decades.

State lawmakers tasked with finding solutions for rural Georgia’s woes are now contemplating charging all phone users that fee and then putting the revenue toward rural broadband.

Sen. David Lucas, D-Macon, who is chairing the Senate Rural Georgia Study Committee, which met Tuesday in Dahlonega, said the additional revenue is needed to quickly spur results in areas of the state that are being left behind.

Lucas said he has no reservations about asking city dwellers to help pay for services they will not use because of the advantages they enjoy in an urban area. 

“The state has to make a commitment,” Lucas said. “There is no way to get around it.”

Sen. Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, who sits on the committee, has already proposed legislation that would expand the fee to all phone lines, including cell phones, and allow the proceeds to be used on broadband.

Gooch said the charge can vary from 50 cents to $1.50 a month.

Under Gooch’s proposal, expanding the program would mean a significant influx of cash for rural broadband. Gooch said he expects a more broadly applied fee to bring in about $200 million annually, which he said could be divvied up among service providers through a grant program.

“I personally believe that the consumer will justify that dollar a month if they know the money’s being spent to upgrade their level of service,” Gooch said.

Gooch said he doesn’t consider it be a new fee, since some people are already paying it. For example, he said he’s paying it now even though his local provider, Windstream, is not eligible to receive the funds.

Everyone should have to pay it, he said, including Atlanta residents who often enjoy much faster speeds and more reliable connections at more affordable rates.

“Not everybody can move to Atlanta,” Gooch said.

But Stan Wise, who chairs the state Public Service Commission, which administers the fund, cautioned state lawmakers that any proposal to expand – or even continue – the fee will receive pushback from providers.

The state Universal Access Fund has been around since 1995, when it was first created to help contain the cost of providing phone services in Georgia’s rural areas. The fund was split into two parts in 2010, with half the program set to expire in the next few years.

“They’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and you’re talking about maybe having it be a train,” Wise told legislators Tuesday, referring to service providers.

The fee is altogether expected to bring in about $42 million this year, according to Wise. The PSC sets the amount charged to telecommunications companies, which typically pass the cost on to their customers.

Wise said current state law limits the subsidy to basic telephone service, but he acknowledged that the funds may indirectly support extensions of subsidized networks that do provide broadband and video services.

The Senate study committee’s work parallels the House Rural Development Council’s focus on rural Georgia. Both panels are expected to propose fixes for the next legislative session, which begins in January. 

Gooch’s bill evolved out of a rural broadband study committee that met last year and includes other recommendations, such as empowering the state’s electric cooperatives to provide broadband. His bill and others dealing with rural broadband stalled this year but remain alive for next year. 

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.