ADELSTEIN URGES PUCs TO TAKE ‘GREAT CARE’ IN GRANTING ETC STATUS
Speaking at an OPASTCO conference in Washington Wed., FCC Comr. Adelstein cautioned state regulators to take “great care” in how they determined whether a competitor was eligible for universal service support. In fact, he said, PUCs ought to take “greater care than some have done in the recent past” because universal service funds were becoming scarce.
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OPASTCO has criticized state regulators for being too quick to give competitors eligible telecom carrier (ETC) status, which qualifies them to receive universal service funding (CD March 5 p5). “This designation is critical to every carrier serving high-cost areas [and is] a key factor in allocating shrinking universal service funds,” Adelstein said.
Other than that, Adelstein, known as an advocate for rural telephony, took a moderate position on competitive issues in his speech. Congress determined there were 2 policy “pillars” for rural areas -- universal service and competition -- and “neither of these pillars can be promoted at the expense of the other,” he told the rural ILECs that have become increasingly concerned about competition. “Our job as commissioners is to implement the law, not to impose our own views upon it,” he said.
Adelstein said the FCC should do more to maximize services to rural consumers and “one way to do that is to get spectrum into the hands of community-based providers like yourselves.” While there have been efforts to serve rural areas through after-market actions such as partitioning, he said the best course was to “to get licenses in the hands of rural companies in the first place.” Adelstein said the FCC made license areas too large in its auctions and “rural telephone companies can’t even afford to make the first bid.” He said “in future auctions I'll support smaller wireless license auction areas.” He said the 700 MHz auction was the first he knew of that encouraged rural licensees. He said he also would like to see the agency revisit its buildout rules, which he said “indirectly undercut rural carriers’ ability to get access to spectrum.” He said the agency was reviewing its rural wireless policies and encouraged the audience to participate.
The FCC is poised to release its 2nd-quarter contribution factor, which determines how much funding carriers have to provide to the universal service fund, and the new factor could result in lower line item charges on customers’ bills, Adelstein said. The Commission’s rules require that a line charge not exceed the contributions factor multiplied by the customer’s interstate bill. The new factor is 9%, which would result in an amount that was lower than the line charge on some bills, he said.
Adelstein said there were some broader issues pending at the FCC that could have great impact on universal service, such as the broadband classification proceeding. If broadband services were classified as information services, that would raise a question of whether their revenues would contribute to universal service funding, he said. “We've got to think carefully at a time when the demands for funding are increasing and the contributions are actually decreasing.”
He said he was “really pleased” that several telecom associations had started meeting to try to develop an industry consensus on universal service issues. The groups include OPASTCO, the Independent Telephone & Telecom Alliance, the National Exchange Carrier Assn., the National Rural Telecom Assn., the National Telecom Co-op Assn., USTA and the Western Alliance. He concluded: “It’s my job to see you get the support you need that you're entitled to by law. Rural America has a friend in me.”
After Adelstein’s speech, CTIA issued a statement emphasizing the value of wireless competition to rural customers. Regulators shouldn’t put up roadblocks that prevent wireless carriers from delivering services to rural consumers, the group said.