"Universal Service and Access Funds (USAFs) have been used by governments in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries since the 80s/90s to address telecommunication related gaps. While their existence is not free from criticism, they are an instrument that has been created to achieve universality of communications, which continues to be a major challenge for most countries in the region. Indeed, a study developed in 2020 for the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has found that almost USD 50 billion are needed to provide universal connectivity in the LAC region alone by 2030. Understanding USAFs, how they work and how they have or haven’t been used is thus a fundamental step towards implementing Internet access and connectivity policies. While information about USAFs can, to some extent, be found online, their status, the resources collected, and their level of disbursement, and the impact of the projects implemented through them are much harder to find.
This report has investigated the status of the USAFs of 24 countries in LAC. This has been done through the analysis of official documents, existing reports, as well as the inputs gathered from 56 interviews with professionals from the private and public sectors, as well as leaders from civil society and academia. Besides investigating how USAF resources have or not been used over the past years, updated information on the financial status of the funds is provided. Further, one of the goals was to understand whether traditional stakeholders – generally large operators – are still the only ones that can access resources, or whether alternative stakeholders, such as small and medium operators and community networks, are also able to implement USAF-funded projects. It also provides actionable recommendations on how the usage of USAFs and the policy and regulatory frameworks that govern them can be strengthened." (Executive summary)