The FCC can modify “the current High-Cost Loop support program”...
The FCC can modify “the current High-Cost Loop support program” and still reach the Universal Service Fund reform goals for the Connect America Fund without completely reworking the system, NTCA said in a meeting last week, according to an ex…
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parte notice in docket 10-90 (http://xrl.us/bk2uth). The tweaks would “promote sustainability, sufficiency, and predictability for USF/CAF recipients, while also helping to place reasonable, carefully tailored controls on the growth of the USF/CAF that take into account ‘conditions on the ground’ across the wide variety of areas served by small companies nationwide,” the group said. Instead of focusing on what might be the “cheapest” network to build, engineers “must take into account reasonably anticipated capacity demands over the life of a network and the reasonably anticipated costs associated with meeting those demands over time,” it said. “Particularly when labor (rather than materials) comprises a substantial portion of the costs of capital investment, planning ahead in this regard clearly represents the most efficient and cost-effective method of deployment for both the provider and the consumer, and such efficiencies accrue to the benefit of the USF.”