The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 31-0 Thursday to advance to the floor its Financial Services FY 2020 budget bill with report language to pressure the FCC to hold a public auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band. The measure, which the Financial Services Subcommittee cleared Tuesday, would allocate $339 million to the FCC and its Office of Inspector General and $312.3 million to the FTC (see 1909170060). The House-passed equivalent (HR-3351) allocated the FCC the same funding level but gave the FTC $349.7 million -- $37 million more than Senate Appropriations proposes (see 1906260081).
Viasat is an eligible telecom carrier (ETC) in high-cost areas in Alabama, California, Florida and West Virginia, the FCC Wireline Bureau ordered on docket 09-197 Wednesday. That lets the company get USF support for the agency's Connect America Fund Phase II auction to extend broadband and voice services in underserved rural areas. The bureau waived a condition that Viasat submit proof of ETC status by Feb. 25.
The FCC is taking opposing comments through Sept. 27 on a Bureau of Labor Statistics plan to use FCC Form 499-A data in revising for wired telecom carriers the producer price index, which measures monthly changes in price for residential and business wired telecom services, said a public notice Tuesday in docket 06-122. BLS will use the form's revenue data and publicly available data on companies to collect sample data proportionate to economic size, the PN said. The FCC collects revenue data to determine how much providers must contribute to the USF. BLS said it will maintain confidentiality.
The FCC should let phone providers eliminate the line-item fee on USF contributions for inmate calling service customers making interstate and international calls, said comments posted through Tuesday in docket 19-232. Network Communications International last month petitioned for forbearance from the fees (see 1908160040). The Human Rights Defense Center said "excessive fees collected under the pretense of USF contribution requirements must be overturned to facilitate fair and equitable jail and prison telephone access." Wright Petitioners said it's "fundamentally unfair and a violation of the FCC's Universal Service directives to require ICS customers to contribute" to the USF "when a significant portion of these very same ICS customers actually receive assistance from the programs supported and maintained" through that fund. The Prison Policy Initiative said exempting ICS carriers from USF contributions "would be a tremendous savings to the low-income users of these services" without a material effect on USF operations. Securus said "the unique hardship that incarceration imposes on both inmates and their family members, who are often the ones actually paying for ICS calls, creates a strong basis for distinguishing between ICS and other telecommunications services." It said the benefits of forbearance outweigh the slightly increased contribution burden to users of other telecom services. The ICS provider said if the FCC grants the petition, it should update the language in Form 499-A instructions to include a reference to "assessable U.S. telecommunications services for which the contribution obligation has been forborne." The USF contribution factor rises to 25 percent for Q4 under a recent proposal (see 1909130003). Absent forbearance, the increasingly high fees subject vulnerable populations to costs they struggle to afford, said Pay Tel Communications. Worth Rises said the FCC should require correctional telecom providers to pay USF fees but prohibit them from passing those fees to their customers. Inmate Calling Solutions entirely backs the NCIC petition.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Competitive Carriers Association members were asked by the federal government to participate in discussions on supply chain security, carrier officials said Tuesday at CCA’s annual meeting. At the opening breakfast, big issues were 5G and what it will mean to competitive carriers. Huawei was at CCA and had a technical presentation on cybersecurity.
The Open Technology Institute asked the FCC to reject an NTCA petition for waiver of increased Lifeline fixed wireline minimum broadband performance standards set to take effect Dec. 1 (see 1907300076). Posted Monday in docket 10-90, OTI said NTCA failed to answer critical questions about its ability to meet the new service standards raised when the trade group petitioned for similar standards waivers in recent years. OTI, however, credited NTCA for raising an "important new issue regarding the voice phase-down" in USF support for Lifeline. "The potential reduction in subsidy could affect affordability of fixed wireline plans," OTI agreed. It asked the FCC to "delay the phase-down or abandon it altogether." In reply comments due Friday in docket 11-42, NTCA said it received universal support for its petition in the initial round.
The FCC Wireline Bureau OK'd limited waiver to the Florida Public Service Commission, extends till Oct. 11 to certify USF eligible telecom carriers (ETCs) through a Universal Service Administrative Co. database, said an order Monday on docket 10-90. The bureau granted the waiver on its own motion after the FPSC postponed a meeting to vote on certification for 11 ETCs due to last month's Hurricane Dorian.
House Communications Subcommittee members Reps. Adam Kinzinger and John Shimkus, both R-Ill., and two other GOP members of the state's House delegation lauded the FCC Monday for allocating more than $26 million of its latest round of funding from last year's USF Connect America Fund Phase II auction for rural broadband projects in Illinois. The FCC announced a total of $112 million in CAF II broadband funding last week (see 1909120037). “The gap in broadband services across the state of Illinois is stark and needs to be addressed,” Kinzinger said. The others praising the funding for Illinois were Rodney Davis and Darin LaHood.
Staff is entering the second phase of a lengthy process to update the FCC's main filing system. After spending about a year on internal communications and other early work, agency employees are now poised to speak with external stakeholders. The update may include ways to help prevent the agency's filing system from being overwhelmed with fraudulent or spam comments that could slow it down, and it could register users, officials told the agency's Consumer Advisory Committee. Unlike past filing system revamps, this one may have bigger changes, staff told CAC.
The proposed Q4 contribution factor for USF programs is 25 percent, the FCC Office of Managing Director announced in Friday's Daily Digest on docket 96-45. That's a record high (see 1909030010). The USF administrator projected 4Q demand of more than $2 billion for the Lifeline, E-rate subsidies to schools and libraries, rural healthcare and high-cost broadband support programs. If the FCC doesn't act on the OMD's proposal within 14 days of the public notice, it's deemed approved. The Free State Foundation wants the FCC and Congress "to look seriously at further meaningful reforms to increase the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of the USF programs and to increase even further efforts to weed out waste, fraud and abuse," said President Randolph May in a statement Friday. He noted the USF surcharge was 7 percent in 4Q 2001,13 percent in 2010 and 17 percent in 2015.