A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed and updated its previous work on airfares and service and reexamined the effect that certain barriers have had on these measures, focusing on: (1) how airfares have changed since 1990 for travel to and from 171 airports serving various U.S. communities; (2) how the quality of air service has changed since 1978 for travel to and from these airports; and (3) the extent to which certain barriers to entry--restrictive gate-leasing arrangements, controls on the number of allowable takeoffs and landings at some airports, and the limits on the distance that flights from some airports can be--influence competition at affected airports."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins ""Universal service" means providing residential customers with affordable, nationwide access to basic phone service. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 extended support for universal service to eligible schools, libraries, and rural health care providers. Universal service programs are generally funded by mandatory contributions from telecommunications companies. New technologies, however, are putting this funding source in jeopardy. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued many orders designed to implement the act's universal service reforms. The Universal Service Administration Company runs the day-to-day operations of federal universal service programs on FCC's behalf, although FCC retains responsibility for oversight and ensuring compliance with its rules. At the state level, public utility commissions generally regulate rates for local and long-distance phone service and implement universal service programs. Public utility commissions subsidize local phone service from the rates set for urban and business phone service and for "vertical" services, such as caller ID and call waiting. Although the use of digital technologies and internet protocol networks for communications has risen rapidly during the past decade, the providers of these services are not required to contribute to the universal service fund. As these …