The FCC opened a pleading cycle on Great Plains Communications' waiver request to allow it to use actual, rather than projected, interstate switched access revenue to calculate switched access rates and cost recovery as the company exits National Exchange Carrier Association pooling arrangements. Comments are due July 31 and replies Aug. 15, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Friday in docket 01-92. Without the waiver, Great Plains' switched access rates will rise almost 150 percent, "amounting to an increase of $2.8 million annually, and elimination of most" of the company's support from a Connect America Fund-intercarrier compensation mechanism resulting from the 2011 USF-ICC overhaul order, said its June 21 petition. The "inaccurate" projected revenue is "based on years-old data," it said.
GAO criticism of FCC Lifeline USF oversight should be analyzed and put in context, said Davis Wright attorney Danielle Frappier, who represents Lifeline wireless providers, in a Friday blog post. She noted some characterized GAO's Thursday report as confirming that waste, fraud and abuse in the low-income subsidy program are "prevalent" and "everything" has gone wrong (see 1706290037). "No one asserts that the program is perfectly structured or administered. And, where corrections and improvements in the program can be made, they should be made," wrote Frappier. "But there are some significant limitations on the data and analysis in the report of which readers should be aware. Probably most importantly, the report is based on data from 2014, and therefore necessarily takes virtually no account of the many additional safeguards and improvements that have been made." She cited specific FCC efforts to improve Lifeline enrollment verification procedures and "some real difficulties in doing large scale comparisons of data cross multiple databases," as GAO did. "The report notes that the Improper Payments Information Act rate for the Lifeline program was 0.45 percent in 2015. That is quite a low number -- lower than for the E-rate program, which in that same year was 6.33 percent (see the FCC Fiscal Year 2015 Agency Financial Report at p. 88) and much lower than the typical improper payment rates for programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ benefits, etc.," she wrote. "As a result, the appropriate reaction to an improper payment rate of less than one-half of one percent is to use this data to continue to make improvements to the program, not to treat the program as in any sort of crisis calling for an urgent or hysterical response." The National Grange issued a statement Thursday urging continued support for Lifeline. An FCC Wireline Bureau public notice Thursday in docket 11-42 reminded Lifeline providers of their primary responsibility to ensure the eligibility of consumers seeking program support.
With cracks in state USF availability widening fast, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska is bearing down on a short-term fix and long-term overhaul. Alaska commissioners discussed fixing USF at two public meetings in June. Seeking to stem the bleeding while the RCA considers broader changes, commissioners voted 4-1 at Wednesday’s meeting to seek comment on changing rules about what to do in a USF shortage. Commissioners said they will take further action in late July. State USF revenue is down in many states and Alaska is one of a few eyeing a shift to connections-based contribution as a possible long-term solution.
Hotels wouldn’t have to pay Texas USF fees on guest telecom services under a proposal published Thursday by the Texas Public Utility Commission. Texas commissioners unanimously agreed to open a rulemaking as part of its meeting consent agenda. The PUC proposal in case 46053 asks for comments by July 28 and replies by Aug. 7. The commission will have a hearing, if requested, it said.
California public utilities commissioners all voted for rulemakings on SMS classification and communications infrastructure at their meeting livestreamed Thursday. The SMS rulemaking responds to a CTIA petition asking whether text messaging is a telecom service that must pay into state USF and other programs (see 1706200048). Comments will be due 50 days after the order’s effective date, with replies due 10 days later, the proposed decision said. The infrastructure investigation and rulemaking looks at safety and competition issues for conduit and utility poles used by broadband and other communications providers. The proceeding will be merged into an existing matter on whether to apply right-of-way rules of commercial mobile radio service providers to wireless facilities installed by CLECs. “We have poles that are just crammed with stuff,” CPUC President Michael Picker said. “People want to get access to them.” Also at the meeting, the CPUC discussed but postponed a vote until July 13 on a proposed $27.6 million California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grant that Frontier Communications protested. The grant would go to a Race Telecommunications fiber-to-the-home broadband project in San Bernardino County, but Frontier argued state funding would fly in the face of federal Connect America Fund money supporting a Frontier upgrade in the area (see 1706280054). Frontier’s upgrade won’t cost the CASF, but it’s DSL -- so it’s slower -- and expected to reach 1,100 fewer households than the Race project, said CPUC Communications Division Director Cynthia Walker. Commissioners Liane Randolph and Carla Peterman said they leaned toward approving the Race project. “You don’t want to discourage applicants from proposing projects in areas that are identified as needing service and then having the rug pulled out from under them after another applicant comes in after the protest period,” Randolph said. But Commissioners Clifford Rechtshaffen and Martha Guzman Aceves said they would like CPUC staff, Frontier and Race to confer and find compromise. “I’m very supportive of getting fiber into these communities, but I’m not sure it needs to be every household,” Aceves said. Picker said he’s “struggling with this one” because the CPUC encourages companies to apply for CASF funds but also urged Frontier to apply for CAF. “Either way we are going to fail somebody we made a commitment to.”
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said playing defense in the minority at the agency is a "very interesting" experience. "Playing the entire field has been a little exhausting but exhilarating at the same time,” she said in an interview on C-SPAN's The Communicators set to air Saturday and Monday. There have been "more than a couple" 2-1 votes, with her dissenting, but she said she still cares about the same things, including putting "consumers first." Asked if she was rallying net neutrality advocates to try to change Republican colleagues' plans to roll back Title II broadband regulation, put pressure on Congress, or build a record in court, Clyburn said, "All of the above." Without Communications Act Title II broadband classification, "What backstop authority do we have?" she asked, citing USF, broadband deployment barriers and pole attachments as areas that would suffer without Title II. “Right now we have certainty that we will be the referee on the field enabling and answering the calls of people who say ‘I want choice, I want connectivity.’'' she said. "All of these things are made possible with connectivity, and if we do not have all of the tools in our regulatory belt to be able to say that we have authority to enable all of these wonderful opportunities, then who does and how does it get done?" She also addressed inmate calling service charges, AT&T/Time Warner, broadband infrastructure pre-emption and other subjects.
The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously advanced legislation reauthorizing the FAA through 2021, adopting 56 amendments en bloc without discussion, including several on drones and one requiring that passengers be barred from talking on their cellphones during flights. “Our committee has acted to continue advancing unmanned aircraft systems and other aviation innovations while offering airline passengers new protections,” said a statement from Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., whose substitute amendment was approved during the Thursday markup.
GAO found continuing "weaknesses" in Lifeline USF program management despite FCC and Universal Service Administrative Co. efforts to improve controls over finances and enrollment by low-income consumers. There are also broader problems in USF contribution system oversight and the commission's use of a private bank account rather than the Treasury Department to store $9 billion in USF net assets, said a May 30 GAO report released Thursday. Policymakers and others disagreed on the extent to which the previous FCC's actions already were addressing some of the issues, but Chairman Ajit Pai made it clear he plans to do more.
If the FCC doesn't act by Wednesday, a proposed USF contribution factor will take effect July 1, a spokesman told us. The Office of Managing Director proposed a Q3 contribution rate of 17.1 percent of carrier revenue from interstate and international telecom end users, said a public notice released June 13 (see 1706130072). "If the Commission takes no action regarding the projections of demand and administrative expenses and the proposed contribution factor within the 14-day period following release of this Public Notice, they shall be deemed approved by the Commission."
Three more Alaska entities asked the FCC not to use a rural healthcare reserve fund to lower the Q3 USF contribution factor, as proposed. Community Connections, Cross Road Health Ministries and the Native Village of Savoonga made filings posted Friday and Monday in docket 96-45. The FCC's proposed Q3 USF contribution factor of 17.1 percent of end-user interstate and international telecom revenue is to be deemed effective Tuesday, absent commission action. An FCC spokesman didn't comment Monday.