Another universal-service proposal has surfaced, this one from wi...

USF- supported basic services, to specific percentages of a zip code’s population, Alltel said. All eligible telecom carriers (ETCs) operating in an area, not just the auction winner, would get comparable per-line funding for making the same service commitment. The plan calls for revamping the USF system, such as by limiting growth of per-line support in each study area to the inflation rate. The “transitional” reforms require more accountability and reporting by ILECs and competitive ETCs and would make the Universal Service Administration Co. (USAC), not NECA, responsible for collecting and processing cost data and setting support amounts. NECA is “an RLEC-dominated advocacy group,” Alltel said in the Feb. 16 ex parte filing with the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service. The plan would “retain the rule that all ETCs receive the same amount of support per line served,” a practice rural LECs strongly oppose. To “target funds more effectively,” Alltel would: (1) Consolidate study areas served by a single ILEC holding company in each state into a single study area. (2) Apply “non-rural” funding rules to such study areas if they had 50,000-plus lines. (3) Revise the “high cost model” support mechanism for nonrural carriers “to provide support in the highest-cost wire centers nationwide, not just in 10 states.” Rural consumers want high-bandwidth and wireless services but “due to the relatively high costs of deploying… networks in many rural areas, these services are being deployed less rapidly in rural areas than elsewhere,” Alltel said. The plan builds on ideas from W. Va. PSC Consumer Advocate Bill Jack Gregg and others, Alltel said: “These policy changes will affect CETCs as much as ILECs. Alltel is not offering these proposals in an intent to benefit or harm any category of providers.”