A proposed White House FY 2008 budget would double FCC spending for oversight of the Universal Service Fund, add $2 billion in interoperability funds and spend $426.3 million on the digital converter box program, according to documents submitted Mon. to Congress. OMB Dir. Rob Portman called the President’s budget request “credible” in a briefing with reporters. Portman said he consulted with Congress before drafting the document so he could be responsive to concerns.
A special access provision included in the AT&T- BellSouth merger drew fire during the FCC’s visit to Capitol Hill Thurs. for the first hearing in the 110th Congress. Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Inouye (D-Hawaii) asked Martin why he voted for the merger if he had qualms about the legality of the provision, referring to a statement Martin released after the merger. “If you felt so strongly, don’t you think you had an obligation to withhold your vote?”
St. Joseph High School in the Virgin Islands told the FCC it has twice filed an appeal of a decision by USAC that it should have to pay back USF funds it received in 2000-2001 and its appeal was twice lost by the FCC. The school sent its first appeal to the FCC office located in Capitol Heights, Md., in Oct. 2006. “The appeal was apparently never re-routed to the appropriate office at the FCC, however, and was never entered into the record for the above listed proceeding,” the school said. In Dec. 2006 the FCC Office of Secy. instructed the school to refile with the Wireline Bureau. “As of the date of this filing, no record of either the original appeal or the retransmission of the appeal is evident in the electronic comment filing system (ECFS) record for proceeding 02-6,” the school said. It asked the FCC for a waiver of the deadline for filing the original appeal.
Backers of the Missoula plan to reform FCC intercarrier compensation rules reached terms with 5 states guaranteeing “early adopter” states that already have cut intrastate access charges won’t be hurt by broader changes. Regulators from Ind., Me., Neb., Vt. and Wyo. sent the FCC a letter endorsing the agreement, filed as an amendment to the plan.
FCC officials have been working long hours in preparation for Thurs.’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing, at which all 5 Commissioners will testify. The hearing marks the beginning of the Democratic Congress’ commitment to stronger FCC oversight; senators are expected to lob some tough questions, Hill sources said. The House Commerce Committee plans a similar hearing with equally close scrutiny in mid-Feb., a committee spokeswoman said.
Numbers-based collection of federal Universal Service Fund (USF) contributions would be simpler to administer and easier for consumers to understand, said an industry study released Tues. The Numbers Coalition, made up of wireless, cable and telecom associations, said the per-number fee would be about $1.20 per month, about what residential wireline consumers now pay. Low-income Lifeline customers could be exempted, with adjustments to ensure against unreasonable assessment against low-volume and low-cost services, the study said. “The numbers-based USF fee does not discourage telephone usage and thus increases consumer welfare as a whole,” the study said: “Consumers would be able to make more long-distance calls for their collar than they do today.”
Arguing for reverse auctions, Paul Garnett, CTIA asst. vp, met this week with Dir. Billy Jack Gregg of the W.Va. PSC’s Consumer Advocate Div. to explain the group’s position on USF reform, CTIA said in a filing at the FCC. Gregg is an important telecom player in NASUCA. Reverse auctions could “drive down the cost of universal service while providing incentives for efficient investment” in wireless and other new technologies, CTIA said.
Cingular’s very strong financial results for Q4 and annual 2006 indicate the wireless carrier’s strength as it adopts the AT&T brand under newly merged parents AT&T and BellSouth, analysts said. The company’s results and guidance show its relative independence from regulatory uncertainty, a trend apparent throughout the wireless industry, they said. Debates may occur at the margins of communications policy, industry figures said, but Cingular and other major wireless carries have most of what they want from regulators. The call was “the last wireless-only earnings call,” before all future results are rolled into a single AT&T, a spokesman said.
Satellite policy will be spurred another year of mergers in 2007, several industry sources said. But this year consolidation won’t be between fixed satellite services (FSS) giants, regulatory attorneys said: It will involve just about everybody else. Expect to see a merger push by XM and Sirius, a mobile satellite services (MSS) shakeout, and possibly an end-run by Liberty-controlled DirecTV and EchoStar, they said.
Action on universal service contributions reform doesn’t appear to be a front-burner issue at the FCC, judging from comments that FCC Chmn. Martin made in response to a question at a news conference Wed. The Commission will “have to see the results of changes last summer” to the contributions methodology before determining how quickly the agency should move on broader reform, he said. “We will have to see if [the USF] starts to creep up” again, he added. The FCC in June placed universal service obligations on VoIP providers and raised the wireless safe harbor -- both actions billed as interim measures until the FCC can institute broader reform of the way carriers contribute to the USF. Rising demand for USF subsidies has been taxing the fund and placing increasing pressure on the carriers that contribute to it.