Tate Backs USF, Intercarrier Compensation Overhauls
The FCC needs a long-term overhaul policy for the Universal Service Fund, FCC Commissioner Deborah Tate told an OPASTCO conference Monday in Quebec, Canada. It’s “critical” that a revamp “strikes a balance between the costs of advancing our national telecommunications infrastructure and the costs consumers are willing to bear,” she said. The current USF surcharge on interstate calls is 11.4 percent, she said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The FCC shouldn’t stop with the interim cap on competitive eligible telecom carrier support, Tate said. Instead, the agency should kill the identical-support rule that bases subsidies for competitive carriers on incumbents’ costs, she said. That is especially inefficient in areas with multiple competitors, she said. Tate is “optimistic” that other commissioners will “embrace elimination,” she said.
The FCC should pilot-test reverse auctions, Tate said, acknowledging “potential concerns regarding the predictability of specific [auction] rules.” Whatever is decided, “the goal is to ensure stability for the industry in a technology neutral manner,” she said. Changes “need to be transparent, explicit and subject to stringent waste, fraud and abuse oversight.”
Phantom traffic is another “high-priority issue” for the FCC, Tate said, citing FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s pledge of comprehensive intercarrier compensation reform by November (CD July 14 p2). “I appreciate and continue to welcome any innovative solutions, from the Missoula Plan to NECA’s Interim Call Signaling Order.” Tate supports a “pirate trap” filter to ensure that rural carriers are compensated for network use, she said. “In this digital IP age, it just seems obvious all traffic can and should be correctly and fully identified,” she said.
Tate contested the relevance of low U.S. rankings on broadband deployment. The studies don’t take into account “unique characteristics of the broadband market,” she said. For example, rankings by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development don’t cover Wi-Fi and WiMAX hotspots, a category the U.S. leads with 66,000, she said. Nor does that study take into account differences in household sizes and population densities, or the “extraordinary success of the E-rate program to connect our schools and libraries,” she said.
The FCC rural healthcare pilot program is going strong, Tate said. “The commission has dedicated $417 million toward the construction of 69 statewide or regional networks, in 42 states,” she said. “My hope is that one day every single healthcare facility -- rural and urban, general and research -- will be truly connected seamlessly.”
Tate urged OPASTCO members to help raise awareness of the DTV transition. “We need the entire public to be prepared,” she said. “Whether you offer a triple play or not, we need your continued help.” The FCC is weighing whether to require eligible carriers to explain the DTV transition to customers in bill inserts and postcards (CD July 1 p2).
Finally, Tate urged OPASTCO members to invest in green technology. “Going green can positively impact telecom operations by enhancing brand equity and customer loyalty, by capturing a new market share, and increasing average revenue per user,” she said. FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein will speak at the OPASTCO conference Wednesday.