Asked what they would do to increase broadband deployment, a panel of attorneys Tues. offered a panoply of ideas, ranging from tax incentives to better consumer education to more reliance on powerline communications. Some panelists at a symposium sponsored by Catholic U.’s law school Tues. also recommended more dependence on the marketplace and less on regulation, although others said regulators better be sure that marketplace remains open to competition.
The Universal Service Fund hearing set for today (Tues.) on distribution methodologies has been moved to Thurs. at 10 a.m., the Senate Commerce Committee said Mon. The date moved to permit a hearing on port security. The USF witness list will be the same (CD Feb 24 p8). A hearing on VoIP originally set for 10 a.m. Thurs. will be rescheduled, the panel said.
FCC Chmn. Martin and others are using a “phony crisis” to justify a proposal to change how Universal Service Fund (USF) contributions are collected, the Keep USF Fair Coalition told reporters Mon. The group, which opposes Martin’s proposal of a flat collection method based on telephone numbers, said the current revenue-based method isn’t broken. Coalition Exec. Dir. Maureen Thompson released a report she said “debunks the hoax” that USF collection reform is needed. The report shows the long distance revenue base for USF contributions isn’t dwindling, as opponents argue, Thompson said. According to the report, long distance revenue base, $76.6 billion in 2003, is projected to be $78.9 billion in 2006. Projected revenues drop slightly in 2007 to $76.8 billion -- still slightly over the 2003 level, Thompson said in an audio news conference. If needed, the current revenue base easily could be expanded by making it more “technology neutral,” meaning revenue could be added from VoIP and other advanced technologies not directly contributing to the fund now. If that were done, the expanded revenue base for USF would be $104.5 billion in 2006 and $105.9 billion in 2007, Thompson said, calling that a more “common-sense” approach to enlarging the fund. The coalition opposes a numbers-based system because it might lead to higher fees for low-volume users of long distance service. Although contributions to the fund come from companies that offer long distance service through a percentage of revenue, the firms pass the fees onto users. The coalition’s announcement came on the eve of a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on USF contributions today (Tues.). The Pacific Research Institute (PRI) took advantage of today’s scheduled hearing to issue a call for more sweeping USF change. The think tank said the USF has “spiraled out of control,” giving “wasteful subsidies [to] entrenched local carriers.” Rather than expand USF to include contributions from high-tech services such as VoIP, Congress should target needy consumers with vouchers and add rules that “ensure public accountability and safeguard cutting-edge innovations,” PRI said.
Prospects of a slimmer Universal Service Fund (USF) with potentially higher charges for rural carriers is discouraging investment in the industry, panelists said Fri. at a Rural Telephone Finance Coop (RTFC)panel. “Any change in the regulatory environment gives us concern,” said Robin Reed, RTFC vp-portfolio management.
Paging company USA Mobility told the FCC in an ex parte letter any changes in assessing USF fees mustn’t mean a bigger burden for the sector. Paging firms make “relatively little use of the PSTN” with paging calls from phones transferred to the paging network after an average of 10 sec., it said. Many of its clients are health and emergency workers or “critical to the nation’s safety and security,” the firm said. “Under current revenue-based methods, paging carriers incur roughly $.07 to $.10 per customer per month on average in federal USF payment obligations,” USA Mobility said. “Should the FCC adopt a per-line or per-number methodology, any fees imposed on paging carriers ought to be comparable in size to this current amount… Any sum that is higher will be difficult for USA Mobility to pass through to its customers, or, to absorb should its customers refuse to pay that increased fee.”
USAC said demand for USF schools and libraries program funds will hit $3.55 billion in fiscal 2006. That forecast is based on 39,416 applications filed by the Feb. 16 deadline, USAC said in a filing at the FCC. The demand is $98 million less than the previous year. Priority one funding requests (telecom services and Internet) rose 7.7% to $1.69 billion. Priority 2 (internal connections other than basic maintenance) fell 10.5% to $1.86 billion. USAC said requests are still coming in, since the FCC extended to Sept. 30 the filing window for applicants directly affected by Hurricane Katrina.
SAN DIEGO -- With net neutrality the burning issue at CompTel’s spring conference, FCC Chmn. Martin diplomatically said he'd with neither Bells nor CLECs. The jury remains out on points each side claims to know everything about, he said. And Martin warned against the Commission’s adopting rules preemptively. He briefly defended his Verizon forbearance decision, an anathema to the CompTel crowd. Competitive carriers voiced displeasure with the ruling and with what they call a trend toward a reconstituted AT&T monopoly, this one without the safeguards of regulation.
The FCC decision not to act on a Verizon forbearance petition seeking regulatory relief regarding charges to business customers for high-speed data was a win for Verizon -- but how big remains unclear, analysts said Tues. The exact relief provided by the FCC is uncertain because the Commission has released statements and a news release, but no order yet, analysts said.
SAN DIEGO -- Net neutrality stirs more Commerce Committee disagreements than any other issue, Sen. Stevens (R-Alaska) said Mon. in his keynote address at the CompTel spring show here. Briefing CompTel members on issues the committee is tackling, Stevens praised the ‘96 Act but said any rewrite must address the extent to which courts struck down the original. He said he and Co-Chmn. Inouye (D-Hawaii) expect to have a bill before the committee right after the Easter recess.
The universal service fund (USF) has hidden costs well beyond what subscribers pay into the program, since taxes usually reduce use of services, Jerry Ellig, senior research fellow at George Mason U.’s Mercatus Center, said Thurs. during a USF discussion at the Digital Age Communications Act conference. A new study puts those hidden costs at $2 billion a year, about 1/2 what the program brings in, Ellig said.