A Senate block on FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly is likely to delay reconfirmation until at least after Congress’ upcoming August recess and potentially until after the November election, lawmakers and lobbyists said in interviews last week. Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., placed a hold last week on O’Rielly that he said will last until the commissioner publicly “states that he will vote to overturn” the order approving Ligado’s L-band plan (see 2007280039). President Donald Trump nominated O’Rielly in March to a term ending in 2024 (see 2003180070).
The time to lobby the FCC on Network Communications International Corp.'s USF forbearance petition ended Monday, said an FCC public notice Wednesday. NCIC's request was made Aug. 9 and deals with inmate calling services, the PN noted. The statutory date the forbearance is deemed granted, "in the absence of Commission action on the petition," is Aug. 10, the agency said. A draft, an FCC official told us, would reject the change the ICS provider sought (see 2007170049).
Oklahoma’s USF administrator will extend temporary emergency funding for increased bandwidth at schools, libraries and healthcare facilities through Dec. 31, Oklahoma Corporation Commission Public Utility Division Director Brandy Wreath wrote stakeholders Tuesday. The COVID-19 support was to end Sept. 30.
California lawmakers tinkered with rival bills on state broadband funding. Eyes are on the clock after the Assembly Communications Committee postponed Tuesday's hearing on SB-1130 to raise the standard to 25 Mbps symmetrical. The delay was due to an unrelated row over the relative volume of bills in the legislature, and it's the second time the committee delayed the hearing. A $100 billion state stimulus bill unveiled Monday included broadband for distance learning.
NARUC President Brandon Presley will propose a resolution on slashing intrastate inmate calling service rates at the state regulator association’s next meeting in November, Presley tweeted Friday: “This is a moral issue.” NARUC agreed Thursday with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s call to lower rates, though many state commissions may lack jurisdiction (see 2007230065). The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities added itself to the list of commissions that don’t set rates. They are set by a request for proposal process through state's Treasury and Corrections departments, a spokesperson emailed us Friday. Granting a forbearance petition to remove USF contribution requirements for ICS providers would provide more relief to inmates and families than the FCC’s plan to reduce interstate rates by 24% to 16 cents from 21 cents, said NCIC Inmate Communications in an FCC filing Friday about a call with a Pai aide. NCIC’s proposal would reduce the cost of every ICS call 27% based on the current quarterly contribution factor. If the FCC granted forbearance and reduced rates, the combined effect would be to lower the per-minute cost to 16 cents from 27 cents, the company said: That would reduce the USF budget by less than 0.5% “while providing immediate and direct relief to millions of families.”
Federal policymakers must help spur rural connectivity to support precision agriculture and ensure food security, John Deere Director-Advanced Technology, Intelligent Solutions Group Daniel Leibfried told a virtual meeting of the FCC precision agriculture task force Wednesday. Leibfried, who chairs the task force's connectivity demand working group, said if it were profitable to deliver connectivity to rural agricultural lands, ISPs would have done so.
State eligible telecom carrier (ETC) designation is useful to the FCC, though it might be time to update that and other USF rules from the 1996 Telecom Act, said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel at NARUC’s virtual summer meeting. Later Wednesday, the state regulator association's board unanimously adopted a telecom resolution opposing Capitol Hill efforts to scrap the ETC requirement (see 2007200054). Preserving the ETC designation is a top issue for state regulators, said NARUC President Brandon Presley in a Tuesday interview. He pledged to move “swiftly” on the association’s social justice pledge.
Congress should directly appropriate the USF for broadband expansion, AT&T Executive Vice President-Regulatory and State External Affairs Joan Marsh blogged Tuesday. The entire USF system may be "dangerously close" to "crashing down" if policymakers don't find a way to fundamentally rethink how programs are funded, she wrote. She said "reform of the existing contribution mechanism is politically impossible" and would be a temporary fix at best. Stakeholders have debated levying fees on broadband or other communications services (see 2005270023). In addition to being politically problematic, "a broadband connections-based approach, which would collect against circuits or ports based on their capacity, is wildly complicated and difficult to define and implement," Marsh said.
COVID-19 amplified the need to address broadband gaps, said members of NARUC’s broadband task force in interviews Tuesday. Cable, wireline and wireless networks are holding up to the surge in traffic during the pandemic, but industry agrees with policymakers on the heightened need to expand access, NCTA, CTIA and USTelecom panelists told state regulators' virtual summer meeting.
The FCC Wireline Bureau announced counties with conditional forbearance for eligible telecom carriers that receive high-cost USF support, effective Sept. 18, from the obligation to offer Lifeline-supported voice services. Monday's public notice doesn't apply to Lifeline-only ETCs.