The FCC should bar nonrural local exchange carriers from getting ...
The FCC should bar nonrural local exchange carriers from getting money from the universal service nonrural high-cost fund in states where rates have been deregulated, said the Mississippi Cable Telecommunications Association. In reply comments at the FCC on a…
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!
2005 remand by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (CD May 12 p3), the cable association said such a rule would be a good “first step” in revamping the non-rural fund. The association’s members compete with non- rural LECs, but don’t get USF subsidies. A state will deregulate incumbent LEC rates if it determines that competitors will keep the ILEC prices in check, the association said. “If an ILEC’s competitors … can provide services without subsidy, then there is no reason to continue a subsidy to the non-rural ILEC, absent a showing of need.” Deregulated ILECs in Mississippi “have obtained a lion’s share of the fund,” it said. But there’s no evidence that the money “has even been used to subsidize service.”