CenturyLink “strongly supports” a connections-based New Mexico USF surcharge, the ILEC commented Friday in docket 17-00202-UT at the Public Regulation Commission. “The current revenue-based approach is not sustainable or competitively neutral.” Connections would tie New Mexico USF “to a growing base rather than a declining revenue base,” and would be “relatively easy to implement, administer and enforce,” it said. It wouldn’t burden federal USF because it’s not dependent on providers’ classification of revenue as intrastate or interstate, CenturyLink said. But CTIA said New Mexico should maintain revenue-based USF contribution. Connections-based contribution is “regressive, imposing a larger burden on the consumers least able to pay it,” and could “create an illegal overlap with or a burden on the federal fund,” CTIA said. The PRC wouldn’t be able to assess prepaid customers who lack a direct and ongoing billing relationship with their providers, it said. PRC staff urged caution. “Any changes to the collection methodology for the revenue side of the Fund must not be speculative nor based on conjecture,” wrote PRC staff attorney Joan Ellis. “The Commission must have ‘substantial evidence’ to support a decision to adopt that new methodology.”
The FCC should eliminate USF silos to more efficiently target support, ex-Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said Monday at a livestreamed Next Century Cities broadband summit in Pittsburgh. Policymakers must balance broadband support for rural and urban areas, she and other current and former government officials said. Broadband issues shouldn’t divide political parties, they said, but Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Blair Levin noted the subject frequently ignites fights between Democrats and Republicans.
Stable FCC and other government subsidies are critical to sustaining Alaska’s General Communication Inc.'s investment in the state, General Counsel Tina Pidgeon said on C-SPAN’s The Communicators in a segment that was to have been televised Saturday. USF funding, including high-cost, E-rate and rural healthcare programs, must be predictable for GCI to spend money upgrading and extending services, she said: Alaska takes rural issues to “a different level,” with rugged terrain and low-population communities spread apart by thousands of miles. GCI uses microwave transport and LTE over satellite to serve the more difficult areas with broadband and wireless services, she said. Alaska regulators are weighing revamp of state USF (see 1805300054).
Massachusetts state senators passed a net neutrality and ISP privacy bill with bipartisan support. Lawmakers voted 37-0 Thursday for a slimmed-down proposal (SB-2610) that would establish an ISP registry with ratings and a seal for ISPs that meet or exceed privacy and net neutrality standards. It also would require state agencies to prefer internet services from ISPs that meet or exceed those standards. Industry opposed the proposal, which still needs House and gubernatorial OK. The FCC declined comment.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Application programming interfaces must be included in the Lifeline national verifier so carriers can help low-income fund recipients with enrollment, said a NARUC resolution passed Wednesday. NARUC cleared that and other resolutions on separations, IP captioned telephone service (IP CTS) and precision agriculture (see 1807030052). NARUC is following the national verifier closely, with the API resolution setting up a big push planned for Lifeline Awareness Week this September, a spokesperson said.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- State commissions should have ethics codes to protect ratepayers, Arizona Corporation Commission member Robert Burns said in a Monday interview on the sidelines of NARUC. The ACC’s new ethics code for commissioners (see 1804060058) “keeps honest people honest,” though it's less likely to be effective against those lacking honesty, he said. It's an important step in improving the image of an agency that faced controversy for some officials' actions, he said.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Utah's revamping USF contributions and New York's convening pole-attachment talks are examples of how states continue to act as “labs of democracy,” even as many jurisdictions reduce their telecom regulation, said Monday NARUC panelists. Telecom authority varies by state and often is limited, but state commissioners said broadband remains top of mind. "I don't make a single decision in telecom" without asking if it will bring faster and more affordable internet, said New York Public Service Commissioner Gregg Sayre.
Verizon supported the Colorado Public Safety Broadband Governing Body asking the FCC to adopt rules to ensure interoperability on the nationwide public safety broadband network (see 1807060034). But an AT&T spokeswoman responded Friday that the FCC "has already properly declined to rule on this matter." In a Thursday ex-parte letter in docket 16-269, Verizon said, “Interoperability should be supported across the entire public safety ecosystem and should include interoperability for services, applications, and features (e.g., priority and preemption protocols) used by first responders.” But the AT&T spokeswoman replied that FirstNet is built on open industry standards that provide interoperability. "The legislation behind FirstNet calls for a single, nationwide broadband network that will drive interoperability for first responders across agencies and jurisdictions -- not replicate a patchwork of networks," she said. "This is what public safety urged Congress to create. But we know there are industry players working in the background to dismantle the vision of FirstNet for their own gain. And it’s our obligation to see to it that public safety wins." FirstNet is "focused on ensuring the delivery of the nationwide network that public safety asked for, as directed by Congress," a FirstNet spokesperson emailed.
The FCC drew mixed responses from local government officials Friday to a draft order combining one-touch, make-ready rules with a ban on state and local moratoriums on new wireless and wireline facilities. A Nashville official lauded the agency for validating the Tennessee city’s overturned OTMR policy, but NATOA slammed the FCC’s proposed moratoriums ban. Local government attorneys warned it could lead to litigation.
The Arizona Corporation Commission may on July 19 appoint an interim executive director after the previous one, Ted Vogt, resigned Thursday following disclosure of possible conflict of interest, about three months after commissioners finalized an ethics code (see 1804060058). “Commissioners will discuss and potentially vote to install an interim executive director to oversee the Corporation Commission staff until a permanent replacement is identified by Commissioners,” said a Monday news release. The commission Tuesday forwarded us several letters leading to the resignation. In a July 2 letter to General Counsel Andy Kvesic, Vogt disclosed possible conflict of interest related to his wife’s employment at lobbying and communications firm Veridus. Her supervisor did crisis communications for lobbyist Jim Norton following Norton’s indictment related to alleged bribing of former ACC Chairman Gary Pierce, Vogt said. Recently, Veridus accepted work from a nonprofit formed to fight a proposed ballot initiative on clean energy and funded by Pinnacle West Capital, parent of electric company Arizona Public Service, Vogt said. Neither is a conflict under Arizona law, said Vogt, but he wanted to “err on the side of transparency” in light of the commission’s ethics code. In July 3 correspondence to ACC Chairman Tom Forese, Commissioners Boyd Dunn, Bob Burns and Justin Olson said the matter warranted commission action. “The issues raised ... are serious and we need to take appropriate action,” wrote Dunn, the Ethics Committee chairman who led development of the commission’s ethics code. Forese asked Vogt to resign because the pecuniary interest existed for months without disclosure. “You were brought into the Commission to assist the Commissioners with rehabilitating both the structure, administration, and image of the commission,” the chairman wrote. Two days later, Vogt wrote commissioners that he tried to be transparent but would resign because “perceptions matter” and he didn’t “want to bring undue negative scrutiny” upon the commission.