FCC nominee Nathan Simington’s Senate confirmation hinges on Tuesday's elections, lawmakers and other officials told us. Many of the hurdles for his confirmation would likely clear if President Donald Trump is reelected, but his prospects will likely be greatly diminished if Democratic nominee Joe Biden wins, lobbyists said.
Cable urged the Oregon Public Utility Commission to clarify that it’s not expanding authority over interconnected VoIP or commercial mobile radio services through an upcoming order to implement a law requiring those providers to pay into state USF. CMRS and VoIP aren’t telecom services that the PUC regulates, the Oregon Cable Telecommunications Association commented Thursday in docket AR 640. Cable and wireless clashed with traditional telco on broader USF changes earlier last week (see 2010270028).
The GAO said Friday it’s recommending the FCC “revise” its performance goals and measures for its high-cost USF program to ensure they're “measurable and quantifiable” to better align “with leading practices.” Doing so will allow the commission to “improve the performance information it uses in its decision-making processes about how to allocate the program’s finite resources,” the GAO said. It found in interviews with stakeholders that the high-cost program’s goals “generally reflect important and appropriate strategic objectives” but don’t meet the standards outlined in the Government Performance and Results Act that they be “objective, quantifiable, and measurable.”
Don’t spend state USF money where there's at least one unsubsidized provider, cable and wireless industries commented Monday in docket UM 2040 at the Oregon Public Utility Commission. Don't give support to any census block with at least one unsubsidized provider of voice or that was awarded federal or state high-cost or broadband funding, said the Oregon Cable Telecommunications Association. “The presence of an unsubsidized competitor should render an area ineligible for high cost support,” CTIA commented. The Oregon Telecommunications Association disagreed. Requiring OUSF only in areas without unsubsidized competition is "a premise that has no basis in statute,” it said. State law requires support "be provided to eligible telecommunications carriers in an amount that is equal to the difference between the cost of providing basic telephone service and the bench mark less any explicit compensation received by the carrier from federal sources specifically used to recover local loop costs and less any explicit support received by the carrier from a federal universal service program.” The Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board urged “a clearer understanding of competition from unsubsidized services and their potential impact on subsidized services.”
Oregon Public Utility Commissioners voted 3-0 Tuesday to lower the state USF surcharge to 5%, effective Jan. 1, a spokesperson said. The current rate is 8.5% (see 2010070029).
Texas state legislators, small telcos and rural educators sounded the alarm about the possibility of the Texas USF (TUSF) becoming insolvent by year-end. The Public Utility Commission over the summer declined to double the surcharge on consumer phone bills, with Chair DeAnn Walker instead asking legislators to stabilize the fund when it reconvenes in January (see 2008110047). With TUSF expected to become insolvent in about 60 days, "some of our companies are in a full-on panic,” said Texas Telephone Association (TTA) Executive Director Mark Seale in an interview. State Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R) told us Friday he sees opportunity to revamp TUSF to support broadband.
The lawyer for the Tri-County Telephone Association challenging the FCC’s nearly $1 billion USF telecom rebuild program for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands faced questions Thursday as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral argument in TCT's case (docket 20-1003 in Pacer). Judges challenged the group’s argument that the FCC doesn't have authority to use high-cost USF support dollars for disaster relief.
As T-Mobile follows through on regulatory commitments to build out 5G to cover most of the U.S., population density often isn’t as big a challenge as topography, said Chris Wieczorek, senior director-spectrum policy, at the Americas Spectrum Management Conference. In mountainous areas, “you get a lot more coverage holes,” he said. Wednesday's conference focus was on rural and hard-to-serve areas.
Several members of the Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees face tough reelection fights, elections experts told us. Most of the vulnerable lawmakers are Republicans, including Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Judiciary Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Commerce Security Subcommittee Chairman Dan Sullivan of Alaska. Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan is the only Democrat on either committee who faces similarly long odds. The House Commerce and Judiciary panels face far less potential turnover among incumbents seeking to return in the next Congress.
Commissioners affirmed an FCC private line order but gave TDS Metrocom and XO Communications relief they sought in 2017 (see 1705020039). The two asked to reverse a staff order denying requests to review Universal Service Administrative Co. audit findings on USF contributions. “We affirm the Commission’s long-standing contribution reporting requirements that direct all contributors to obtain and provide to USAC or the Commission upon request documentation that supports the jurisdictional allocation of their revenues,” the FCC said in Tuesday's Daily Digest. “Our decision ensuring that our filing requirements are adhered to by all contributors helps to safeguard the integrity of the Fund.” Based on “unique circumstances,” the FCC said TDS has “shown good cause to grant a waiver of our rules and we direct USAC to reverse its decision.” The commission said USAC didn’t give “sufficient weight to the additional evidence XO submitted to demonstrate it had allocated its private line revenue to the proper jurisdiction” and remanded its determination letter.