The FCC will soon issue a further notice of proposed rulemaking o...

final order by April 16, as it works toward responding to a 2005 remand by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (CD June 11 p7). In 2005, the court called unlawful the FCC’s current non-rural rules, which address carriers like Qwest that serve high-cost areas with too many lines to be considered “rural” by the statutory definition. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski last week circulated the notice, which contains tentative conclusions, agency officials said. One described the tentative conclusions as very bare with “not a lot of new ideas,” and said the further rulemaking notice seems designed as a “punt.” Commission spokeswoman Jen Howard declined to comment. Meanwhile, industry meetings with the FCC on a comprehensive USF overhaul have been heating up (CD Nov 27 p5). The impetus seems to be the non-rural support item and an expectation among industry that the regulator will tee up reform in the National Broadband Plan due this February, agency officials said. Monday, Windstream phoned an aide to Genachowski about the agency’s rulemaking notice on the 10th Circuit remand, urging the FCC to seek input on how to better target federal universal service support directly to granular high-cost areas, an ex-parte filing said. Windstream said the FCC should stop distinguishing between rural and non-rural carriers, and kill eligibility requirements based on statewide average costs. President John Rose of the Organization for the Promotion & Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies met separately Monday with aides to Commissioners Michael Copps, Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker, said an ex-parte filing. The meetings focused on USF and intercarrier compensation reform “in the context of” the plan, OPASTCO said.