The recently relaunched bipartisan congressional working group studying a USF legislative revamp is seeking a new round of stakeholder comments about how to proceed and has opened a portal for submissions, Senate Communications Subcommittee Chair Deb Fischer, R-Neb., said Friday. Meanwhile, the Digital Progress Institute said in a white paper Thursday that USF's current contribution mechanism is “unsustainable” and “horrendously inefficient.”
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) adopted two resolutions at its Summer Policy Summit in Boston this week, calling for enhanced federal-state collaboration on telecom policy, particularly in phone number management and universal service funding. NARUC’s telecom committee passed both Monday, and the full board of directors adopted them Wednesday.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr applauded the penalties levied against Q Link Wireless and CEO Issa Asad, including prison time for Asad, for USF fraud and money laundering. “The FCC takes very seriously any instance of misuse of public funds and misrepresentation,” Carr said Monday. “Protecting taxpayer dollars from waste, fraud, and abuse is central to our work.”
A mobile billboard truck condemning Dish Network as being “woke” was parked near FCC headquarters Thursday morning in the hours before the agency’s open meeting. Conservative group Consumers’ Research was labeled as the billboard’s sponsor. “Woke Alert. Dish Network is Pushing a Woke Agenda while Asking Conservatives for Favors,” the sign read, directing readers to WokeDishNetwork.com. The URL goes to a page on Consumers’ Research’s website, where it condemns Dish for the company’s diversity policies and CEO Charlie Ergen’s donations to Democratic Party campaigns. The FCC is currently investigating Dish’s parent company EchoStar over its use of spectrum and failure to fulfill buildout promises to the agency. In June, President Donald Trump reportedly interceded with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Ergen’s behalf (see 2506160039). Asked about the investigation Thursday, Carr said he “is still open-minded on a path forward” but the status quo is “unacceptable.” Dish is “sitting on” a “tremendous amount of spectrum” that isn’t being effectively utilized, Carr said. Consumers’ Research is known for litigating for conservative causes and has repeatedly challenged the legality of the FCC’s USF fund. The organization doesn’t disclose its donors, but DonorsTrust in 2022 named Consumers’ Research as among recipients of its grants totaling $242 million. DonorsTrust is a donor-advised funding provider that supports conservative groups. “We share your commitment to protecting our nation’s constitutional liberties and strengthening civil society through private institutions rather than with government programs,” said its website.
Consumers’ Research said the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should look more closely at an issue raised in the dissent and a footnote in the majority opinion of the Supreme Court’s decision in June upholding the legality of the USF. The FCC and DOJ last week asked the 5th Circuit not to require further briefing but close the case (see 2507170063).
The FCC and DOJ on Thursday asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals not to require a briefing on a potential remaining issue after the U.S. Supreme Court last month rejected a Consumers’ Research challenge to the way the FCC manages the USF (see 2507020049). The problem for the FCC has been a footnote in the majority opinion, which noted that several provisions in Section 254 of the Communications Act weren't challenged and which expressed no opinion about whether those posed any additional problems for the program (see 2507150081).
Arguments that low earth orbit broadband can't meet BEAD capacity requirements and that LEO lacks scalability are incorrect, Joe Kane, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation director-broadband and spectrum policy, wrote this week on the group's website. Kane said LEO service can exceed 100 Mbps downloads, which is more than adequate for consumer use. While LEO upload speeds fall short of 20 Mbps in some areas, wireline upload speeds in those same areas "are precisely zero; the alternative fiber networks don’t exist," he said. Kane said LEO networks are scalable as they launch new satellites and account for the cost to replace them over time. Any BEAD fund awards come with enforceable obligations to meet performance standards, he said. Criticisms that LEO broadband is more expensive wrongly compare urban wireline rates to rural Starlink rates, as consumer prices will always be lower in more densely populated areas, according to Kane. He said absent USF funding, rural wireline broadband would be more expensive than SpaceX's Starlink service.
The FCC avoided a potentially disastrous result when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the USF contribution factor in its Consumers’ Research decision last month (see 2507020049), HWG’s Chris Wright said during a practitioners panel that was part of an FCBA CLE Tuesday (see 2507150081). “If the case had gone the other way” it would have “called into question almost everything in the Communications Act,” said Wright, a former FCC general counsel.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last month upholding the USF in the Consumers’ Research case was a win for the FCC (see 2507020049), but the fight isn’t over, Jacob Lewis, FCC associate general counsel, said during an FCBA CLE on Tuesday. Lewis warned that Consumers’ Research has already renewed its challenge in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, making a different argument for overturning parts of the fund.
While the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last month upholding the USF (see 2506270054) was a win for consumers, questions about the future of the fund won’t go away, Pillsbury lawyers wrote Thursday. Carriers that pay into the USF “get to decide whether to pass those costs through to their customers or absorb [them], and due to the high cost, most choose to pass some if not most of that fee on to customers in the form of a line-item USF charge on their phone bill,” the lawyers blogged. Now that the fund has survived judicial challenges, “advocates will look to Congress and the FCC to expand the contribution base to ensure sustainable funding in the face of eroding revenues from traditional telecommunications sources and the rapid growth of broadband and other connectivity services.”