Clearer rules and procedures would go far to improve management of the universal service fund (USF), the FCC was told by a variety of organizations. USF management can be confusing and inefficient for contributors and recipients, according to some comments, but many said the problems don’t stem from the Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC) the non-profit that administers USF. The agency had sought comments on the entire USF program, including the high-cost fund, E-rate and smaller programs (CD June 15 p8).
TracFone urged the FCC to allow prepaid wireless and wireline service providers to continue to contribute to the Universal Service Fund based on their interstate telecom service revenue. It said prepaid wireless service was similar to wireline prepaid calling card service because in both cases there’s no mechanism for seeking reimbursement of the providers’ universal service contributions from consumers due to the lack of billing relationship between the service provider and the end user. Replacing the revenue-based USF contribution methodology with the one based on telephone numbers would produce “significant dislocations” to prepaid wireless service providers and their consumers, TracFone said.
NASUCA and the Vt. Public Service Board/NARUC restated their claim to standing in U.S. Appeals Court, Atlanta, after the FCC last month asked the court to dismiss their petitions challenging the agency’s recent truth-in-billing (TIB) order. They also opposed arguments by interveners Sprint Nextel and Cingular, which filed to support the FCC earlier this month.
Eligible telecom carriers (ETCs) offering free wireless service to Hurricane Katrina survivors could get an estimated $39 million reimbursement under new FCC Lifeline rules, the agency said in an order. The rules, in effect until March 1, will cover only households eligible for individual housing assistance under FEMA rules, it said. Eligible customers will receive a free handset and a package of at least 300 min. of use, up to $130 in value per household, until March 2006.
Four rural telecom bodies have allied to strengthen their lobbying power as Congress eyes policy changes on issues such as universal service. At a news conference Thurs., members of the Coalition to Keep America Connected said the impending Telecom Act revision spurred creation of the group, made up of the Independent Telephone & Telecom Alliance, NTCA, OPASTCO and the Western Telecom Alliance.
Rural telecom firms face a significant choice as a result of FCC deregulation of wireline Internet access (CD Aug 8 p1), panelists said on a USTelecom Webinar conference Tues. The order lets rural telecoms decide if their DSL service is to be treated as a regulated common carrier service or as a generally unregulated private carriage offering -- and that’s a major decision that can’t be made “off the top of the head,” said Carol Mattey, formerly at the FCC Wireline Bureau and now a Deloitte & Touche dir.
The available support is a “great benefit,” according to more than 90% of Universal Service Fund (USF) Schools & Libraries Program participants, USAC said. Only 6% said their school or library gets “some benefit;” 1% said there is “no benefit,” USAC said. The data were amassed by a USAC program launched in Jan. to learn now to improve USF by visiting and talking with recipients. Participants rely on USF for public safety, better communications between faculty and parents, distance learning, readying students for state-mandated tests and acquiring new technologies, USAC said. “Some school officials also have expressed that without USF support, their schools would not be able to meet the federal requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act,” USAC said.
The 4 proposals to modify the rules governing high- cost universal service support by the FCC’s Joint Board on Universal Service didn’t received much support in comments filed with the FCC Fri.
The “digital divide” is a growing problem that Congress must not ignore as it takes up DTV legislation and a rewrite of telecom laws, civil rights groups said at a panel Tues. “The digital divide is clearly large, and it’s not disappearing soon, and it’s much larger for children than adults,” said Robert Fairlie, prof., U. of Cal.-Santa Cruz. Blacks and Latinos are much less likely than white, non-Latinos to have access to home computers (50.6% and 48.7% compared to 74.6%), Fairlie said, citing a recent study he did for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund. They're also less likely to have Internet access at home (40.5% and 38.1% compared to 67.3%).
The Bush Administration chided Congress for “restrictive language” that would prohibit reforms to the Universal Service Fund program in the Commerce-Justice- State appropriations bill, according to a Sept. 8 memo from the Office of Management & Budget. OMB objects to Section 520 of the bill, which the Senate passed 2 weeks ago, that prohibits the FCC from using any funds from the bill to make changes to USF payments implementing last year’s Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service recommendations on USF payments. OMB said this provision would prevent reforms to improve the “fairness and efficiency of the program and potentially reduce burdens on telephone ratepayers.”