Three lawmakers urged FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to adopt a tempor...
Three lawmakers urged FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to adopt a temporary cap on universal service subsidies to competitive eligible communications carriers, a move proposed by the Joint Universal Service Board. The Monday letters reflect a dogged campaign by the…
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Coalition to Keep America Connected, lobbying for 4 rural telecom trade groups and about 800 small to mid-size communications companies. Since May, when the Joint Board backed the cap, coalition representatives have been meeting steadily with members of Congress (CD May 2 p1). The coalition hopes to get Congress to pressure the FCC to adopt a permanent cap, which wireless carriers oppose. The letters to Martin from Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Reps. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, and Collin Peterson, D-Minn., said “virtually all of the growth in the USF is occurring in the competitive eligible telecommunication carrier (CETC) portion of the fund.” Earlier, 18 lawmakers urged the FCC to keep the cap, but no date is set for a decision. “I support the temporary cap if that will lead to reforms that will fix the broken subsidy structure,” Sen. Coburn said.