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.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson challenged state utility commissioners to increase diversity and be more inclusive, in a Monday keynote at NARUC’s virtual summer meeting. NARUC President Brandon Presley pledged “intentional actions” to end systemic racism, backing up the association’s June 4 statement amid a national reckoning. Another major crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, drove broadband discussions Monday.
An item circulated Wednesday would reject a petition from Network Communications International for forbearance from USF contribution obligations on interstate and international inmate calling services (see 1908140055), an FCC official told us. It's new on Friday's circulation list. The agency confirmed the broad contours of the item without commenting on the details.
The final version of the FCC’s secure network ruling, approved 5-0 Thursday (see 2007160051), is largely the same as the draft but addresses in more detail Huawei objections. In another change reflected in the final order, after the draft was circulated, the FCC barred Huawei and ZTE from participating in the USF (see 2006300078). “Huawei contends that the 2019 Supply Chain Order ‘cannot fulfill any obligation imposed by the Secure Networks Act’ because the FCC lacked authority to adopt it and the Order was otherwise arbitrary and capricious and violated the Administrative Procedure Act and Constitutional due process protections,” said a new footnote: “As the Commission has explained, the FCC was created in part to protect the national defense, and the 2019 Supply Chain Order is consistent with that objective and a reasonable exercise of the Commission’s authority under section 254 of the Communications Act to ensure ‘quality service’ and protect the ‘public interest’ by safeguarding the integrity of the telecommunications supply chain and communications networks.” The order now noted that “nothing in the Secure Networks Act restricts the Commission from using its other available statutory authority to prohibit the use of USF funds for a wider range of equipment or services than is required by section 3(a)” of the act.
Commissioners approved a declaratory ruling saying that regulator has fulfilled one of its obligations under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR-4998). The FCC approved the item despite the different stances of Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr. Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Jessica Rosenworcel said the FCC still isn't doing enough to ensure secure networks in the U.S. After the draft item was circulated, the agency barred Huawei and ZTE from participating in the USF (see 2006300078).
Broaden the USF contribution base by including one-way VoIP services among contributors, the phone industry asked the FCC in comments posted through Tuesday in docket 06-122. "Given the rising contribution factor and the shrinking base of assessable services, the Commission should consider comprehensive USF reform that sets USF contributions on a sustainable path," USTelecom said. "While it is unlikely to make a noticeable difference to the contribution factor at this time, one way to begin addressing this issue in an incremental way is to broaden the base by including one-way VoIP services." Zoom wanted the FCC to ensure new obligations "are consistent with its long-standing commitment to fostering a regulatory environment that will invite investment in information services, including those that incorporate voice." Inaction on more comprehensive changes to USF contribution methodology threatens "the stability of USF funding and its mission to provide universal service nationwide," said the Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee. Incompas urged comprehensive changes to contribution methodology, seeing the one-way VoIP matter as a distraction.