Any USF reform should encourage participation by new technologies...

“reveal various providers’ relative cost” of serving rural areas, SIA said, adding that satellite providers can serve rural communities efficiently and cheaply. “Satellite technology is in many respects ideally suited to delivering service to rural and high-cost areas,” SIA said: “A customer in rural Montana can get the same satellite service as a customer in downtown Chicago.” Basing universal service support on technological efficiency would cut the fund’s burden, as variations on the reverse auction have in Chile, Colombia, India, Peru and S. Africa, SIA said. The key to reverse auctions’ success is ensuring that entrants with new technologies -- including satellite providers -- can participate in the program, the satellite group said. To ensure satellite providers can participate effectively in reverse auctions, SIA said, the Commission should: (1) Not award set-asides, credits or other favorable treatments to incumbents. (2) Let satellite providers that provide broadband services on a non-common carrier basis keep that status. (3) Avoid restrictions such as service areas that give certain providers an edge over others. SIA also pushed for targeted USF pilot projects to prove satellite providers’ ability to bring telecom service to remote areas. “Reverse auctions could be used to award contracts to provide service to areas or individuals that currently lack access to any communications services,” SIA said. Pilot projects could focus on specific areas -- some tribal lands, for instance -- historically unserved by traditional telephony, SIA said.