A debate is taking place in the country about the universal service provision of modern telecommunications services. The debate revolves around two questions. First, if many communities, and significant segments of the population, are not able to participate fully in the modern Information Age will it result in their impoverishment? Second, if there is too great a policy and regulatory intrusion in the market place will that cause significant misallocation of resources causing the entire society to be impoverished? It is a debate with a mixture of facts and some conjecture. The purpose here is to bring forth the basic telecommunication facts, as we currently know them, relative to rural and Latino communities.

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