NTCA Cites Progress on Rural USF Reform Effort; Timing Not Clear
The FCC and stakeholders are making progress on a possible rural USF overhaul, NTCA Senior Vice President Mike Romano told us Wednesday. Romano said NTCA is continuing to talk to the FCC about a variety of ways to approach changes…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
to the existing USF mechanisms of rate-of-return carriers. "Nothing’s firm yet, but I think we’re making good progress in finding a way through the logjam that's been tying things up for months now," he said. Various issues still have to be addressed, such as the basic structure of an overhaul and how to deal with new funding limits and unsubsidized competitive overlap, he said, and timing isn't yet clear. "We continue to treat USF reform issues as if the commission is going to circulate an order at any time," he said, referring to a December statement he made (see 1512240014). "We don’t know when it will circulate, but we're treating it as if it could be any day, any week, any month." A draft rural USF broadband overhaul order is unlikely to be on the tentative agenda due out Thursday for the Feb. 18 FCC meeting, but is more likely for the March 31 meeting, an industry source told us Tuesday (see 1601260063).