KINGSTON, Jamaica— Technology Minister Fayval Williams says the sustainability of the Universal Service Fund (USF) is concerning as its revenues remain on a downward trajectory due to the predominant use of data over voice calls.

She says the USF is therefore finding it more difficult to fulfil its mandate of rolling out WiFi community access points across the island.

In 2018 acting chief executive officer of the agency Violet Badroe said the USF as looking for ways to reign in the decline in funds.

She informed the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) of Parliament that management was very concerned. 

“We had budgeted about a billion dollars for the year, but what we are experiencing now is just over 50 per cent of that,” Badroe said.

The USF was created in 2005 and collects the revenues from the charges on incoming international calls to mobile lines, and incoming international calls that terminate on fixed lines.

The USF also covers the collection of funding for the E-Learning Project.