FCC site located here with more on this topic
Question: What is the FCC’s Universal Service program and how does it apply to rural areas?
Answer: The FCC works to ensure that telecommunications services are available to “all the people” of the United States, including low-income consumers and those in rural, insular, and high-cost areas. Universal Service, sometimes called the Universal Service Fund, is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). The FCC was mandated in 1996, to promote the availability of quality services at just, reasonable, and affordable rates and increase access to advanced telecommunications services throughout the Nation, and it established the universal service program and its administrator to that end.
In addition, the 1996 Act states that providers of telecommunications services should contribute financially to Federal Universal Service in some equitable and nondiscriminatory manner and there should be specific, predictable, and sufficient Federal and State mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service. There are four universal service programs: the high cost fund; E-rate; rural health care; and the Low Income program, which provides funds to low income households for basic telephone service. See the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) website for additional information on their programs.