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.
Lifeline eligible telecom carriers offered the FCC an alternative to revoking Texas’ opt-out certification from the National Lifeline Accountability Database (NLAD). The National Lifeline Association (NaLA) proposed revoking opt-out to remedy a state process ETCs say is preventing reimbursement (see 2007020033). In comments posted Monday in docket 11-42, TracFone agreed with NaLA that the Texas system doesn’t comply with NLAD opt-out requirements or federal Lifeline rules. Rather than revoke the PUC’s opt-out, the FCC should clarify that the Texas low-income discount administrator’s (LIDA) real-time verification process using an application programming interface between LIDA and ETCs can be used for reimbursement, rather than rely on an end-of-month report that doesn’t include subscribers who enroll in the second half of the month, TracFone said. Allowing only the report “has resulted in Texas ETCs being the subject of unwarranted audits and demands for return of USF support by” Universal Service Administrative Co., and FCC probes and enforcement actions, it said. The current situation harms Lifeline ETCs and customers, but revoking opt-out could cause disruption, so clarify the real-time API approach may be used, Q Link Wireless asked. If the FCC won’t revoke opt-out status, condition Texas keeping it, said TruConnect. “The current trajectory will result not only in improper underpayments to ETCs, but also enforcement and audit actions based upon erroneous legal and factual conclusions. These results abuse the dwindling group of carriers still willing and able to provide critical Lifeline services in Texas.” The Texas PUC is looking into the problems, saying ETCs should have come to the state agency first (see 2007100027).
The Kentucky Public Service Commission increased state USF payments to eligible wireless carriers providing unlimited voice to Lifeline customers. Effective Aug. 1, monthly payments will be $8 per customer through July 31, 2021, a $4.50 increase, the PSC said about Friday's order in docket 2016-00059. The commission will review the increase’s impact March 1 but said Kentucky USF can sustain it for slightly more than a year before the surcharge would have to be increased. The PSC said increasing payments for more data “would deplete the KUSF in the absence of an increased surcharge, and that the benefits of temporarily providing payments for additional voice outweigh the benefits of providing payments for additional data.” Some Kentucky Lifeline providers asked in May comments for higher payments to provide more data (see 2005260063).