Incumbent carriers are using “the government to ensure that they...

FCC is considering a regime in which the largest incumbent telcos would be granted the inherent right to all of the available money in certain areas, before any other industry (which are equally able and committed to serve) has a chance to compete.” Powell was referring to the right of first refusal provisions in the pending Universal Service Fund order. “Cable is the leading broadband provider in the nation, but it will have to stand in line behind wireline telephone companies,” he wrote. “Wireless is one of the most exciting ways for accessing the Internet (homage to Steve Jobs) yet they stand in the consolation line as well. And what is the harm of allowing competition?” Cable executives and lobbyists pushed hard in the final week of USF lobbying. Docket 10-90 showed no fewer than seven ex parte notices filed by cable lobbyists last week. Formulas to cap rate-of-return carriers’ operating or capital expenses “should be decided by the full Commission rather than on delegated authority at the Bureau level,” the four largest rural telecom associations told aides to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in a meeting last week. Rural carriers are worried that Genachowski’s intercarrier compensation regime reforms “could result in year-over-year decreases in access recovery that are not tied to costs,” said lobbyists for NTCA, the National Exchange Carrier Association, the Western Telecommunications Alliance and OPASTCO, according to an ex parte notice released Monday in docket 10-90 (http://xrl.us/bmgxa9). The rurals also urged the FCC not to consider wireless companies as “unsubsidized competitors” when excluding USF support for areas where unfunded carriers are already offering broadband.