The California Public Utilities Commission plans to vote on proposed rulemakings about SMS classification and telephone poles at its June 29 meeting, said an agenda released Monday. Commissioners will vote on a proposed decision to open a rulemaking responding to a CTIA petition asking whether text messaging is a telecom service that must pay into state USF and other programs. CTIA sought a CPUC ruling that SMS is an information service that need not pay the USF and other fees, but consumer groups responded it’s a telecom service that should pay fees (see 1705150040). Commissioners will vote on a draft order to open a proceeding “to consider strategies for increased and nondiscriminatory access to poles and conduit by competitive communications providers, the impact of such increased access on safety, and how best to ensure the integrity of the affected communications and electric supply infrastructure going forward.” The CPUC would investigate feasibility of a data management platform to allow sharing of pole attachment and conduit information, the draft said. Also, the agency will consider rules to allow broadband internet access service providers to attach facilities to poles and use conduit after their classification as public utility telecom carriers in the FCC 2015 net neutrality order, it said. And it will consider conduit rules and better pole management practices. The commission said it will merge the new proceeding into an existing matter on whether to apply right-of-way rules of commercial mobile radio service providers to wireless facilities installed by CLECs (see 1705040057).
Alaska Communications asked the FCC to include $100 million in rural healthcare (RHC) support demand in its Q3 USF contribution factor calculations. The telco took issue with the Office of Managing Director's June 13 proposal for a factor of 17.1 percent of carrier end-user interstate and international telecom revenue, which included an "unexplained 'adjustment' of the full $100 million of RHC demand" (see 1706130072). "W]ithout this 'adjustment,' the correct contribution factor would be only marginally higher, about 17.9 percent," said the company's filing Tuesday in docket 96-45. The 17.1 percent contribution factor is to take effect June 27 absent commission action. Alaska Communications said a review of Universal Service Administrative Co. filings found "virtually no justification for the abrupt shift" on June 2, "when USAC suddenly concluded" that the RHC program was overfunded and revised its demand projection downward by $100.85 million. USAC's decision to project RHC demand "after netting out purportedly excess collections from previous years violates" the Wireline Bureau's "clear and explicit guidance not to do so," the telco wrote. The FCC also should consider various RHC changes putting pressure on the program's "grossly inadequate" $400 million annual budget cap, and maintain reserve funds "to smooth the transition and to bridge the gap between the very real demand and limited funds," the company said. "The Commission should not borrow from the RHC reserve for a lower contribution factor -- a temporary gain of only cosmetic benefit to the national interest." The telco recently warned that USF faced a crisis in its RHC program management (see 1706120034).The FCC didn't comment.
Additional fixes to FCC funding for USF programs that impact broadband deployment in rural and remote areas are needed to overcome ongoing shortcomings, said lawmakers and industry experts Tuesday at a Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing. Lawmakers noted concerns with USF's “stand-alone broadband” problem and the high-cost fund, as expected (see 1706160055), and questioned the accuracy of current broadband service measurements. The subcommittee also considered the FCC's Rural Health Care program.
A Tuesday Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee hearing on the FCC FY 2018 budget focused largely on the direction of the commission under Chairman Ajit Pai, with subcommittee Republicans highlighting policy issues Pai championed. Democrats raised concerns with the future of 2015 net neutrality rules and Congress' rollback of ISP privacy rules. President Donald Trump's administration proposed last month that the FCC budget be cut by $18 million, to $322 million, after years of the agency maintaining $340 million in annual funding. The FCC's budget justification document noted a planned reduction of more than 100 employees (see 1705230041).
Liberty's proposed buy of General Communications Inc. is an opportunity to review GCI's commitments under the Alaska plan and consider how they might be revised, Alaska state Rep. David Guttenberg (D) said in a letter posted Monday in FCC docket 17-114. He said Alaska's plan for broadband-oriented USF support to fixed and mobile providers approved in 2016 (see 1608310067) doesn't do enough to expand access "to reliable, reasonably priced broadband services," and multiple remote communities still have no access to mobile cellular service. GCI didn't comment.
The House Small Business Committee's Agriculture, Energy and Trade Subcommittee plans a Thursday hearing on improving rural broadband deployment. Competitive Carriers Association Senior Vice President-Legislative Affairs Tim Donovan, NTCA Senior Vice President-Industry Affairs and Business Development Mike Romano, Jo-Carroll Energy General Counsel Chris Allendorf and VTX1 CEO Dave Osborn are to testify. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2360 Rayburn. It will be the third broadband deployment-related hearing this week, following a Tuesday Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing on USF funding of rural broadband and a Wednesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing on broadband service mapping (see 1706140073, 1706150058 and 1706160015).
The Small Company Coalition urged the FCC "to fully fund" USF support for rate-of-return carriers, and suggested tapping the sizable Connect America Fund reserves. "[A]rtificial constraints placed on the RoR high cost mechanisms are needlessly harming the ability of carriers to deploy broadband, especially considering the collection and maintenance of significant CAF reserves," said the filing Thursday in docket 10-90 by the group, which is an alliance of RLECs and associated vendors. It said the Universal Service Administrative Co. has a CAF reserve balance of $1.84 billion, which has hovered around $2 billion since 2014 and is intended to prevent dramatic quarterly fluctuations. "Such reserves could help reduce costs associated with maintaining integrity in the USF and the savings could be better used to help fund the RoR mechanisms," said the SCC. The group asked the FCC to scrutinize the audit and review processes of its Office of Inspector General and USAC, which appear to have "substantial inefficiencies" and pass "unnecessary costs" to carriers. Separately, rural telco representatives asked the FCC not only to fully fund its original model-based USF offers but also to make "offers of model funding to RLECs whose model eligibility of funding was affected by clerical oversights," which they said would be "particularly efficient." Such model funding for the affected companies "would increase the number of prescribed broadband locations by 32% but only increase new model funding by 9% (compared to fully funding the original model offers)," said a filing by Vantage Point Solutions on a meeting it and others had with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai and Wireline Bureau staffers. A filing by rural electric groups and NTCA urged the FCC "to reject ViaSat's untimely proposal to modify" the agency's bidding weights for a planned CAF Phase II reverse auction of fixed broadband subsidies. A solo NTCA filing in docket 10-208 on a meeting with agency staffers discussed its proposal for the Mobility Fund Phase II challenge process. General Communication of Alaska discussed "hardship" under a USF rural healthcare spending cap and the need for a fix, said a filing in docket 02-60 on a meeting with aides to Pai and Commissioner Michael O'Rielly.
The Senate Communications Subcommittee's Tuesday hearing on the USF and its rural broadband deployment capabilities is likely to focus on whether problems affecting funding for broadband deployment in rural areas have been fixed, but it could also examine opportunities to expand use of USF for technologies like telehealth, said lawmakers and industry experts in interviews. The hearing is one of two on Capitol Hill this week on broadband deployment issues, with the House Communications Subcommittee planning a Wednesday hearing on the accuracy of the existing National Broadband Map data on unserved and underserved areas of the U.S., plus other mapping efforts (see 1706150058). The Senate Communications hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.
Sens. Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., bowed their Rural Broadband Deployment Streamlining Act Thursday with the aim of streamlining the Department of Interior and U.S. Forest Service approval processes for applications for broadband deployment rights of way (ROW) on federal property. The bill would set a 270-day clock for Interior and USFS to respond to all broadband easement and ROW applications. Any application the agencies didn't act on by that deadline would be deemed approved, and when the agencies deny an application they must notify the applicant of the reasons, Heller's office said. The bill also requires Interior and USFS to establish regulations for the applications process that reflect a “streamlined, consistent, and standardized process for application review,” Heller's office said. The legislation would direct the GAO to examine the accuracy of the National Broadband Map, determine whether the existing data is accurate and the extent to which the data affects rural broadband deployment grant awards. CTIA believes the bill would "accelerate deployment of next-generation 5G networks which will grow our economy by $500 billion, generate $275 billion in investment from the wireless industry, create 3 million new jobs and result in $160 billion in savings for local communities,” said Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Kelly Cole in a statement.
The Senate Communications Subcommittee plans a June 20 hearing on the USF and its “capabilities for deploying” broadband in rural areas of the U.S., the subcommittee said Wednesday. NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield, C Spire Senior Vice President-Strategic Relations Eric Graham and Charlesmead Advisors senior partner Michael Balhoff are to testify. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.