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Mayes joins coalition urging Supreme Court to protect rural phone, internet access

person holding a phone with text messages
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The U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing a case that could affect internet and phone service, especially for rural areas, across the country.

Arizona is one of 23 states whose officials are urging the court to protect the program at issue.

Created in 1996, the Universal Service Fund (USF) helps make internet and phone services more accessible to low-income households and in rural areas, where some schools and hospitals rely on the USF.

It’s managed by a nonprofit under the FCC’s guidance. But the legal challenge the Court is considering argues both parties have too much power, making the USF unconstitutional.

In a recent filing Mayes and other attorneys general argue that it’s the FCC doing what it was created to, and crucial to narrowing the infrastructure gap between urban and rural communities.

More Arizona politics news

Kirsten Dorman is a field correspondent at KJZZ. Born and raised in New Jersey, Dorman fell in love with audio storytelling as a freshman at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 2019.