NARUC May Dig Into 811 Cost Sharing, Phone Numbers and USF

Schram’s resolution focuses on the cost of responding to “locate” requests, which broadband companies must make to existing utilities before digging to ensure there aren’t any utility lines buried in the same spot. “With all the federal and state money being used to deploy broadband, we're seeing a lot of locate costs being borne by the existing utility,” which then gets paid entirely by that company’s ratepayers, Schram told us. But broadband expansion is good for customers of all companies involved, whether they provide electric, natural gas or telecom services, he said. His resolution therefore asks agencies administering broadband grants to consider how utilities share costs and collaborate, he said. “It’s my hope that in the application process … the applicant is asked and verifies that they have coordinated and communicated with the existing utilities in the project area.”

Gas Committee Chair Tammy Cordova of the Nevada Public Utilities Commission co-sponsored the resolution with Schram. Four committees -- Telecom, Gas, Water and Critical Infrastructure -- plan to consider the item at the NARUC meeting. However, under the association’s practice, only one committee’s approval is needed to advance to the full NARUC board for final OK.

The draft notes that “excavation damage, including from broadband installation, is a leading cause of accidents and service disruptions involving underground facilities and has resulted in loss of life, injury, environmental damage, property damage, and disruption of vital services.” As broadband construction increases, protecting “existing infrastructure will be paramount,” it said. Call-before-you-dig systems, which commonly involve dialing 811, can and do prevent damage, but the costs of locating existing infrastructure are significant and expected to rise under NTIA’s broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) and other government programs, said the draft.

The proposed resolution would recommend that the federal government provide “specific guidance on the use of federal funding for the payment or reimbursement of qualified infrastructure locating services to support broadband projects.” It would encourage federal agencies and state commissions to educate state agencies administering BEAD “to address eligible uses of funding, including infrastructure locating services” and “to identify opportunities to minimize locate request costs through coordination.”

Also, the draft would recommend that scoring of a broadband grant application considers how much the applicant has coordinated with existing utilities. And it would ask utilities with buried infrastructure to “ensure that facility locates will be accurately and timely performed once requested in order to prevent damage to existing infrastructure and minimize delays.”

Under another possible telecom resolution, NARUC would urge the FCC to exercise its audit authority “to determine how companies are brokering or auctioning toll-free and other numbers via their websites and to determine how these companies obtain these telephone numbers.” The proposed resolution’s stated goal is ensuring "that the numbering rules are followed, and to prevent premature number exhaust.” Indiana Utility Regulatory Commissioner Sarah Freeman is the sponsor.

The North American Numbering Plan projects that it will run out of numbers between 2049 and 2054, the draft noted. At the same time, state commissions have noticed some service providers don't comply with numbering rules and guidelines, it said. Some telecom carriers, including VoIP providers, “appear to be transferring telephone numbers to companies that warehouse these numbers or engage in their sale or licensing,” including one that claims it has nearly 73 million numbers for sale or auction, said the draft: However, the FCC hasn’t done a numbering audit of a telecom company in at least 15 years.

Approving a third telecom resolution would authorize NARUC to file an amicus brief in Consumers Research v. FCC at the U.S. Supreme Court. In July, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in that case that the current funding mechanism for federal USF is unconstitutional. On Sept. 30, the FCC and DOJ filed a petition for writ of certiorari at SCOTUS.

If the Supreme Court grants cert, the impact of a SCOTUS decision “could have far-reaching implications for the future of” USF and the telecom industry, said Schram's proposed resolution. “The states have an interest in ensuring that [USF subsidies] are not discontinued, since such action would be contrary to the interests of consumers, the communications industry, and the states.”