FCC chair says USF funding should subsidize broadband

CHICAGO -(Dow Jones)- Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin on Tuesday specifically endorsed the use of money in the Universal Service Fund to subsidize broadband deployment in rural parts of the U.S.

The comments from Martin, who was speaking via a video link at the NXTcom telecommunications conference in Chicago, mark the first time he has explicitly said that the fund should be used to speed up the deployment of broadband service.