USF, ICC Reform May Occur Soon, Copps Tells FCBA
The time may finally be right for an overhaul of the Universal Service Fund and of intercarrier compensation, said FCC Commissioner Michael Copps. He’s hopeful a “method” will be found to turn things like the rulemaking notice, approved by commissioners at last week’s monthly meeting, into “momentum” for making fixes to update the rules for the broadband age, he told us in a Q-and-A after his FCBA luncheon speech. “I think we've teed up an item that really raises all the issues,” he said, saying the regulator should hold stakeholder hearings on the issue. Copps used the speech to defend public broadcasting against Republican legislators’ efforts to cut funding and to urge the FCC and Chairman Julius Genachowski to do more to promote media diversity.
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USF and intercarrier comp are a “system with so many problems, with so many shortfalls now. We've been playing around with this since I've gotten here in 2001,” Copps said during the Q-and-A. “I think the ball is starting to roll” toward making changes and “I don’t think this is a politically partisan issue. If we're really going to be serious about deploying broadband universally, we really have to be serious about fixing” USF and intercarrier comp,” he said: “We have as good a chance now -- better -- than we've had in a while” to do so. Industry needs to “lead the way on broadband deployment, but it falls on policymakers to establish a regulatory environment that encourages” it, Copps said in the speech.
The commission should hit the road to have what Copps called final hearings on USF and intercarrier comp, he said in the Q-and-A. It would be a venue “where the stakeholders come with something close to their bottom lines” of what changes they want, knowing the commission will take final action, Copps said. “I hope, and I expect, that we will have a comprehensive transition plan in place before” year’s end that includes “formative” reports and orders, and the FCC needs to work with state colleagues in the transition to fund broadband, he said in the speech: The Telecom Act “envisioned a level of federal-state cooperation in implementing the statute that has not yet been achieved.” A commission spokesman declined to comment on Copps’ remarks.
It’s “inexcusable” where things stand in implementing a public safety network that’s interoperable and nationwide, with the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks looming, Copps said. “Every public safety organization should have access to a reliable system that they can use anywhere to talk to any other first responder in any emergency. We need to take significant and tangible steps” in 2011, he said. “We are nowhere near where we need to be,” though some progress has been made, he added: He’s happy the new Congress “is beginning with a sense of priority devoted to this problem."
Copps had strong words for FCC policy on media. The agency can do much more to increase diversity and competition and the extent to which local issues are covered by media, Copps said. In areas where the regulator can’t act on its own, “Congress may ultimately want to examine rules governing the structure of media ownership or maybe other parts of our enabling statue,” he said. “But the commission can act now. It should have acted on media before now. I am disappointed it has not.” In the FCBA’s spirit of mentorship, Copps, who ran the commission for much of the first half of 2009, said it’s the duty of any ex-chairman to help mentor his successor. “So since handing over the reins of my acting chairmanship, I have been doing my part to `pay it forward’ on my media issues. I'll get back to you on how things go."
The FCC needs to issue a notice of inquiry on disclosure of support for political ads, Copps said Tuesday, something he’s said before is lacking and needs to improve (CD Dec 6 p4). “We the people have a right to know who is bankrolling these ads beyond some wholly unidentifiable group set up to mask the special interest it really represents,” Copps said. “Both sides of the political spectrum are guilty of this undemocratic sin of omission."
Public talk on nonprofit broadcasting shouldn’t be a “knee-jerk discussion,” and instead should be done in a “calm, serious” manner, Copps said. Discussion should focus on increasing support for public broadcasting, which gets $1.35 annually per person in U.S. support, he said: “In other democracies, citizens happily pay up to hundreds of dollars more than that” and “talk of zeroing out this funding leaves me 100 percent incredulous.”