Carriers Throw Final Jabs in USF, Intercarrier-Comp Overhaul Debate

But several groups and Capitol lawmakers are urging the FCC to take more time before a vote. The VON Coalition voiced “deep concern” about the draft. In a Monday teleconference, groups representing small and mid-sized phone companies, competitive carriers, small wireless carriers, state commissioners and consumers urged the FCC to postpone adoption to allow for public feedback.

“We support the FCC moving forward and adopting comprehensive reform at the [Nov. 4] Open Meeting,” a Verizon spokesman said Monday. At a European Telecommunications Network Operators Association conference in Venice, Verizon Executive Vice President Tom Tauke urged the FCC to “forge ahead and get across the finish line” this year. “There’s a lot of work to do in a short time,” he said. “But all the [elements] are there in the FCC’s record to develop a viable plan.”

Recent reports on the FCC overhaul plan raise “deep concern” for the VON Coalition, the VoIP association said in a Sunday letter to the FCC. “Altering today’s system by imposing telephone carrier economic regulation on information service providers would put at risk innovative broadband applications, and deployment, and is completely antithetical to the progress needed today.” The coalition worries about what seem to be proposals to eliminate end users’ right to buy access to the public switched network, and to apply access charges to certain IP-originated calls, it said.

A cable overbuilders association also asked the FCC to press pause. In a Monday letter to the FCC, the Broadband Service Providers Association said “the order as drafted will negatively impact medium to smaller operators that are the primary service providers to rural markets.” The FCC should put its plan out for public comment, BSPA said.

Meanwhile, a group of mid-sized incumbent local exchange carriers bought ads in Sunday newspapers in Arkansas, Oregon, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas. Calling themselves the Coalition for Affordable Communications, the carriers said implementing the FCC plan as drafted would raise costs, hurt jobs and impede broadband deployment in rural areas.

Congress also is weighing in. In a letter to Martin, Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Lee Terry, R-Neb., urged the chairman to put his overhaul plan on the record and allow at least two months of public comment. Sixty of their colleagues also signed the letter, and another letter is circulating the Senate, the NTCA said. “The public deserves the opportunity to provide fully informed comments, and the Commission stands to gain by understanding the positions of all parties interested in its potentially sweeping decision,” the congressmen said.

A Monday press call urging public disclosure included officials from NARUC, CompTel, BSPA, the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, Rural Cellular Association and USA Coalition. USTelecom, which Friday called for a delay, didn’t participate. Officials participating in the call rejected an argument by AT&T and others that the FCC already has seen enough comments about USF and intercarrier compensation. The FCC “simply does not have an adequate record” to support what it’s said to be considering, said NASUCA Chairman David Bergmann. “Details do matter, and how they fit together matter,” said CompTel President Matt Salmon.

Meetings with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin only have added to NARUC’s and NTCA’s worries, officials of those groups said. NARUC met Friday with Martin, but still doesn’t have a clear picture of the plan, said Ray Baum, NARUC telecommunications committee chairman. NARUC fears the implications of rushed adoption for state regulatory bodies and rural consumers, particularly given the financial crisis, he said. NTCA feels “less positive” today than it did last week before its eighth floor meetings, said Ken Pfister, a Great Plains Communications vice president representing the rural cooperative association.

Seeking comment “on rather controversial and weighty matters” wouldn’t be unprecedented for the FCC, said ITTA President Curt Stamp. In June this year, the FCC sought comment on proposed rules for its AWS-3 auction; in September, they sought comment on D-Block auction rules, he said. On intercarrier compensation, the FCC also put out the CALLS proposal for public notice, added Thomas Jones, an attorney for CLECs.

Those examples don’t work, an industry source said. The D-Block item was a public notice, while CALLS was an industry plan, the source said. USA Coalition’s Todd Daubert countered that “nobody’s saying that the exact text of the order needs to be published.” The Administrative Procedures Act requires agencies to publish details of proposed rules, he said. There have been requests for comment on “general ideas,” but Martin’s plan seems to put those concepts together “in very different ways than most people would imagine and includes a lot of detail … we haven’t had access to,” he said. State regulators usually get comment on complex orders, noted Baum. “I'm not aware of any state commission” that wouldn’t seek comment when “they're moving off in a new direction,” he said.

Officials on the call couldn’t predict what the FCC will do. “There’s a lot of wheeling and dealing going on,” but it’s “all behind closed doors and under a shroud of secrecy,” Salmon said. CompTel has heard the overhaul plan “changes daily,” he added.

NARUC believes Commissioner Deborah Tate will consider state regulator concerns that the FCC will preempt state jurisdiction to set intrastate access rates, Baum said. At an event Friday, Tate neither endorsed nor rejected Martin’s overhaul plan but said it’s “important” that the FCC not preempt states (CD Oct 27 p2). Tate, a former state commissioner, “shares a state perspective … so she’s asking the right questions of the order,” Baum said. “I know [Tate] wants to work with the chairman, but I think she'll do what she thinks is best for the country.” Some believe a Friday filing by the Tennessee Regulatory Authority could influence Tate, who before her FCC appointment directed that body. As NARUC and NASUCA have, the TRA has called for public comment.