FCC'S MARTIN TROUBLED BY WIRELESS UNIVERSAL SERVICE REPLACEMENT
LAS VEGAS -- FCC Comr. Martin is “troubled” by the concept of substituting wireless for wireline in universal service situations, he said at the USTA convention here Tues., citing particular concerns about wireless’ ability to provide adequate E911 and separate powering. NTIA ex-Dir. Nancy Victory, meanwhile, said the Universal Service Fund (USF) needed an “extreme makeover.”
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Even consumers still are “struggling” with the question of whether wireless is a true substitute for wireline, Martin said, so “we need top be very cautious when we're talking about universal service and wireless.” Fla. PSC Comr. Charles Davidson said when wireless carriers wanted to be universal service carriers, they must realize they were subject to the same rules and regulation as wireline carriers.
Meanwhile, as wireless and other connections are substituted for wired, the FCC should consider switching to a USF contribution model based on telephone numbers, Martin said. He called such a method technology neutral and said it would assure that as new technologies emerged they would be put on an equal standing for USF issues. On the distribution side, however, Martin worried that some were trying to use the USF as a way to promote competition. He said the USF’s goal was exactly the opposite: To assure at least some service where there is no competition.
Both the contribution and distribution sides of the USF need a “makeover,” Victory said. For example, she said, on the contribution side the FCC needs more flexibility for using such things as intrastate revenue or excise taxes to fund USF: “Some help from Congress in providing additional flexibility would be useful.” However, Davidson responded that “you have got to be careful not to get on the slippery slope of taxing new technologies.”
Regulators shouldn’t get “wrapped up in one particular method” of delivering universal service, FCC Chmn. Powell said, because that “stifles thinking creatively.” He provided few details about how universal service should be provided, but said the FCC should end “regulatory arbitrage opportunities.” He suggested there may be some “light ways” to use universal service as an incentive, but also said there could be “heavy-handed” methods that would act as disincentives.