USF Reform Critical, But a Long Road Ahead, Wheeler Says
"There can be no question” about the importance of the Universal Service Fund and promoting broadband deployment in rural America, but doing so won’t be easy, said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Thursday. FCC commissioners got a brief status update on its moves to reform the USF during the meeting. The presentation went over in some detail recent history of USF reform, including progress on Phase II of the Connect America Fund. Other commission members indicated they had concerns that parts of the program limit full use of the program by carriers. Staff last gave an update at the FCC’s June meeting.
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"There’s no bureau, there’s no office” at the FCC not involved in USF reform, Wheeler said. “This is a long road and I look forward to working my colleagues and the staff to keep moving down that road with dispatch.”
"I do worry that our reforms to the high-cost universal service system are extremely complex,” said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “I fear that this complexity can deny carriers dependent on this system the certainty they need to confidently invest in their network infrastructure. So when opportunities arise to simplify our rules in a manner that is fiscally sound, good for rural consumers, and bound to inspire investment, we need to seize them.”
Commissioner Ajit Pai repeated his concerns about the impact of the quantile regression analysis benchmarks on broadband deployment. “I am pleased both that the [Wireline] Bureau has suspended the benchmarks for Alaskan carriers and that the Commission has made some improvements to those benchmarks for other carriers over the course of the past year,” Pai said. “But I continue to believe that the QRA benchmarks are chilling the build-out of next-generation networks in rural America."
"I've always said that we should remain open … to course corrections where necessary to ensure that our rules are working as intended,” said Commissioner Mignon Clyburn.