Universal Service means a telephone network that covers all of a country, is technologically integrated, and connects as many citizens as possible. It is one of the touchstones of telecommunications policy. The importance of rapid, widespread telecommunications to a government, business, and society can't be overstated.
In the United States, the federal government is concerned not only with the financing of universal service in a competitive environment, but also with the extension of universal service ideals from simple voice telephony (traditional hard-line phones) to new technologies (such as smart phones) of a national information infrastructure.