A House Communications Subcommittee hearing Wednesday appears likely to focus on promoting $7.6 billion in E-rate funding included in Commerce Committee-advanced language to be added to a coming COVID-19 budget reconciliation package (see 2102120066), plus other measures to improve broadband access during the pandemic. House Commerce Republicans unveiled an alternative broadband policy agenda Tuesday, which largely draws on bills they first filed last summer (see 2102120066).
House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina confirmed Wednesday he will again seek $100 billion in broadband funding as part of coming infrastructure legislation, as expected (see 2011200056). The House Commerce Committee, meanwhile, proposed $7.6 billion in E-rate remote learning funding as part of its portion of the coming COVID-19 budget reconciliation measure. It’s bringing the bill up for a committee markup Thursday, also as expected (see 2102090079). Commerce Democrats’ decision to fast-track consideration of the measure drew committee Republicans' ire.
NARUC's Telecom Committee unanimously agreed the FCC should closely review Rural Digital Opportunity Fund long-form applications to ensure RDOF providers have what's needed to deliver on promises. The committee cleared that proposed resolution Wednesday at NARUC's virtual meeting. Earlier, an analyst raised concerns about young companies winning bids. Committee Chair Karen Charles Peterson urged the new FCC to revisit broadband reclassification and net neutrality rules, revamp USF contribution and restore Lifeline voice support.
More than half the Texas House urged the Public Utility Commission to take emergency action at their Friday meeting to sustain state USF through the PUC sunset review process in 2022-23. Commissioners should consider revisiting an earlier rejected staff proposal to double the USF surcharge and broaden the contribution base to include VoIP providers, said Rep. Eddie Rodriguez (D) and 77 other House members from both parties in a letter posted Monday. “We have reached a crisis,” they wrote. “While there are multiple bills filed or currently being drafted that seek to reform and modernize the USF these cannot take effect nor the necessary rulemaking completed quickly enough to mitigate the possibility of service disruption and loss of connectivity for communities in underserved areas.” No USF item appeared on the PUC’s agenda Monday. The agency declined to comment. Facing large reductions in state USF support, rural telcos sued the PUC last month (see 2101260046).
Carriers seeking funding to replace Huawei and ZTE gear in their networks face tight restrictions as part of the process to get money from the FCC under the 2019 Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act, Wireline Bureau Legal Adviser Justin Faulb said during a Rural Wireless Association webinar Monday. The FY 2021 appropriations and COVID-19 aid omnibus bill (HR-133) provides $1.9 billion (see 2012220061). Applicants must maintain detailed records for 10 years of all costs eligible for reimbursement, Faulb said. The FCC has 90 days to act on requests and can extend that 45 days, he said. If an application has “material defects,” companies have 15 days to correct them or must wait for a second window, Faulb said: Now the FCC is considering only one filing window, to be open for 30 days. All applications will be reviewed equally. The FCC will then analyze the level of demand and allocate funds based on individual applications, he said. If demand exceeds supply, eligible telecom carriers are first in line, with priority given for changes to the core network, he said. Once awards are announced, an applicant has a year to file the first reimbursement claim, “so you can’t sit on it and wait,” he said. Faulb advised companies to prepare now, noting that work must be completed within a year of the initial disbursement. The FCC can issue a blanket six-month extension if it finds equipment and services aren’t adequate, notifying Congress, he said. The agency can OK multiple individual six-month extensions, he said. “There’s a lot of pressure to get this done quickly and remove this insecure equipment,” he said. After the year, companies have an additional 120 days to file a claim and can seek a 120-day extension, he said. Only equipment on the FCC’s covered equipment list obtained before Aug. 14, 2018, is currently eligible for reimbursement, he said. Congress doesn't allow any equipment replaced to be used elsewhere, and companies must document that it's destroyed, he said. Recipients face audits and inspections similar to those in the rest of the USF, he said. Anyone who violates the rules can be required to pay back the funds, be barred from the USF and face legal penalties, Faulb said: “Please don’t break the rules.” The biggest question members have is when the FCC will release the public notice announcing the filing window, said RWA General Counsel Carri Bennet. “We’re working closely on it” and seeking a third-party fund administrator, Faulb said. “We’ll have to follow the government’s procure schedule, which will take some time based on just the steps we have to jump through.”
Verizon’s proposed TracFone buy is likely to be one of the first such transactions before the FCC that's now under Democratic control. The deal has raised some competitive concerns. Friday, 16 state attorneys general led by Virginia’s Mark Herring (D) asked the FCC to further investigate implications for Lifeline before approving the deal.
Schools should have more flexibility in how they use E-rate funds because most students are relying on remote learning during the pandemic, blogged Ed Gillespie, AT&T senior executive vice president-external and legislative affairs. The FCC should "evaluate whether the current E-rate structure is the right one for today's world" and work with the Education Department to transform the program, Gillespie wrote Tuesday. The funding mechanism for USF programs is "fundamentally broken and unsustainable," he said, and should be reevaluated.
Congress should provide billions of dollars in new funding for broadband, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said at a virtual FCBA conference Tuesday on the 25th anniversary of the Telecom Act. Some 42 million Americans still don’t have reliable broadband, “and that is a national tragedy,” he said. Too often, those left out are “brown, black and low-income,” he said. Markey is expected to soon be named Communications Subcommittee chairman (see 2101290049).
The USF contribution factor continues to shatter records. Universal Service Administrative Co. released its quarterly demand projections Friday, and the contribution factor will increase from 31.8% in Q1 to a historic 32.7% for Q2, said analyst Billy Jack Gregg. It raises several questions about the fund’s sustainability (see 2012310027). Even if demand stays at the current level, the factor will continue to rise because the contribution base continues to decline, Gregg said.
Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction winners must follow through on broadband promises, NARUC Telecom Committee members said in interviews last week. NARUC plans to vote at its Feb. 4-5 and 8-11 meeting on a draft resolution urging the FCC to scrutinize RDOF long-form applications (see 2101260033). Some commissioners raised doubts about fixed wireless and said they’re unfamiliar with entities that won federal dollars.