Clear World Communications agreed to pay $290,000 to settle an FCC investigation into failure to pay regulatory fees and contributions to the universal service and Telecom Relay Service funds and to meet numbering administration rules. In a consent decree with the FCC, the long distance company agreed to set up a program to assure employee compliance with FCC rules. Clear World also has paid toward $530,000 toward an obligation of $3.13 million in USF contributions, interest and late charges, according to the consent decree issued Fri.
Satellite services and satellite spectrum policy’s importance are growing at NTIA and elsewhere because of rural satellite broadband deployment and emergency communications plans being reworked to include a satellite overlay, an NTIA official said Thurs. Speaking at a Washington Space Business Roundtable lunch, NTIA Acting Dir. John Kneuer said he’s “very bullish” about rural broadband deployment and sees it as an “enormous opportunity for satellite.” He also said NTIA is seeing satellite incorporated more and more in emergency planning post-Hurricane Katrina.
The draft telecom bill (S-2686) was too hard on cities, Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) said Wed. at the first of 2 hearings on it. Acknowledging as “fair criticism” complaints about the bill’s local franchising provisions, Stevens said those parts of the bill were “put in by others.” Stevens said he takes “credit or blame” for the bill’s handling of net neutrality, but wants more Democratic input before revising the bill.
The FCC denied a Telco Group petition seeking exclusion of international revenue from the base used to calculate payments into the Telecom Relay Service Fund, or at least exclusion of Telco Group’s international revenue from its own contribution base. The FCC rejection of the requests said the TRS fund isn’t limited to supporting domestic relay service, but also is used to fund international relay calls. Telco had argued international revenue should be excluded because it’s excluded from contributions into the universal service fund. The FCC said that’s a different situation because USF money isn’t used for international service.
Communities across the Empire State should look to Philadelphia’s model of offering municipal broadband access to citizens, N.Y. Attorney Gen. Eliot Spitzer (D) told the Personal Democracy Forum conference in N.Y.C. Mon. The gubernatorial candidate said the problem “isn’t a lack of resources, it’s a lack of imagination and a lack of leadership.”
U.S. colleges could see a “staggering annual increase” in phone fees if the FCC moves to a numbers or connections system for collecting universal service fund contributions, the Keep USF Fair Coalition said Thurs. The group -- which has conducted a long-running campaign against the numbers approach proposed by FCC Chmn. Martin -- said colleges could see an increase of as much as $480 million, which could translate to phone service cuts and higher tuition. The coalition said a study shows that colleges could see their USF fees rise to an average of $82,999 from $8,971 now. The fees, paid by telecom carriers, usually are passed on to customers. Under a numbers approach, carriers would contribute to the USF by paying a per-phone number fee, probably around $1, rather than making contributions based on a percentage of revenue, as in the current system.
Comr. Tate promised rural carriers she will push for light-handed regulation of wireless with an eye on encouraging build out of wireless broadband networks. “Wireless providers will be critical to getting broadband out to that last, most difficult mile,” Tate told the Rural Cellular Assn.: “To that end, I believe that the FCC must use a light regulatory touch that gives you the freedom to try new ideas and deploy new technology.” Tate also urged the rural carriers to work with the FCC on USF reform: “We must keep in mind that the Universal Service Fund is not yours, or ours, but is money that has been entrusted to us to use wisely in furthering a public interest Congress has identified.”
The fight over net neutrality language in the telecom bill introduced by House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.) threatens to sink any remaining hope for telecom legislation this Congress, Verizon Exec. Vp Tom Tauke said Tues. Tauke said he still sees some hope for legislation that includes only video franchise plus USF reform provisions needed to please Sen. Stevens (R-Alaska), chmn. of the Senate Commerce Committee.
The Senate likely will learn the “hard way” to pare a 10-title telecom bill to get it passed, Rep. Pickering (R- Tenn.) said Tues. at a Pike & Fischer lunch. Pickering called the Senate’s broader approach to telecom legislation a “generous hodgepodge of issues” that need to be addressed.
WHITE SULFUR SPRINGS, W.Va. -- If FCC staff could change communications law, they'd get the agency Sunshine Act relief, many said when asked at an FCBA seminar here for their “wish lists” for Congressional action. Another top wish: Expanding Universal Service Fund contributions by including intrastate and interstate revenue, now barred by statute. Both changes are pending in a bill introduced by Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska).