Relating To The Universal Service Program.
HB1052 updates Hawaii’s Universal Service Program and Universal Service Fund to give the Public Utilities Commission clearer authority to administer telecommunications access programs. The bill restates the program’s purposes, including maintaining affordable basic residential service, supporting low-income and rural customers, and helping customers with disabilities obtain essential telecommunications services. It also adds an explicit purpose focused on individuals with print disabilities, including blind or visually impaired users, by authorizing free, print-disability-friendly telephonic access to time-sensitive information such as government notices, emergency alerts, job opportunities, and daily newspapers.
The bill also clarifies how the Universal Service Fund may be used and administered. It authorizes the commission to use available fund moneys for free telephonic access to time-sensitive information for individuals with print disabilities, with a cap of $150,000 for that purpose, and allows direct distributions to customers based on commission-established need criteria. In addition, it directs the commission to adopt rules for distributing fund moneys, including reimbursements to carriers that provide reduced rates to low-income, elderly, rural, underserved, or other subscribers, and it revises the contribution framework by directing the commission to consider basing contributions on gross operating revenues from intrastate retail telecommunications services.
HB1052 amends sections 269-41 and 269-42 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes governing the universal service program and universal service fund. The bill expands and clarifies the statutory purposes of the program, expressly adding access for individuals with print disabilities and authorizing the Public Utilities Commission to administer related services and funding. It also strengthens the commission’s authority over fund distribution, contribution calculation, and potential direct customer assistance, while preserving the fund as a special fund outside the state treasury.
The bill appears to have broad support and little visible opposition. The recorded committee and conference votes were unanimous or near-unanimous, with all listed votes passing 4-0, 12-0, or 3-0, and the bill advanced through Senate committees, Ways and Means, and conference with amendments. The overall sentiment reflected in the legislative history is favorable, with lawmakers and committees treating the measure as a clarifying and enabling update to an existing telecommunications access program rather than a controversial policy shift.
The main policy issue is not whether to support access for people with print disabilities, but how the Universal Service Program should be structured and funded. The bill addresses concerns that the program was inactive, that the commission lacked clear authority to create and pay for print-disability services, and that the fund needed clearer rules for distribution and contributions. Any remaining contention would likely center on funding mechanics, the $150,000 cap for the print-disability service, and the commission’s discretion to set contribution methods and direct assistance criteria, rather than on the underlying goal of expanding access.