The federal government appeared Friday evening to be on the verge of a partial shutdown due to disagreement between the Senate and president and a supportive House majority over the inclusion of $5 billion in border wall funding in a continuing resolution to temporarily fund government through Feb. 8. A CR set to expire at midnight Friday covers funding for the FCC, FTC and the departments of Commerce and Homeland Security and others.
Recent revisions to Alaska USF took effect Thursday and will be printed in Register 228 of the Alaska Administrative Code in January, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska said in a Wednesday order closing docket R-18-001. RCA last summer voted to sunset state USF in five years and adopt a plan by the Alaska Telephone Association (see 1810250035).
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission voted 4-1 Thursday to increase the Telephone Assistance Program (TAP) surcharge by 7 cents to 10 cents per month, funding a $7 credit for the poor that’s double the current amount, and to increase outreach around the program. The Minnesota Office of Attorney General proposed a higher fee and increased outreach to improve lagging program participation (see 1812050022). Increasing outreach without raising the credit wouldn’t likely much affect participation, PUC Chair Nancy Lange (D) said at the livestreamed meeting, her final before she departs the agency. “We’ve tried a lot of different things, maybe we haven’t tried enough, and it seems like the last, most logical tool in the toolbox is increase the credit.” Supporting the $7 credit, Commissioner Dan Lipschultz (D) wants to “go as high as we can go” under statutory limits. “See what happens, and that will be instructive for the legislature,” he said. “If they see very little impact, then we know we need to do other things,” such as review whether TAP should support wireless or broadband, he said. Commissioner Katie Sieben (D) opposed the increase, saying that “we’re trying to reach a larger pool of low-income customers, and to do that, we’re essentially increasing their telephone fee.” Seven cents more “may not sound like a whole lot on the surface,” said Minnesota Telecom Alliance CEO Brent Christensen: “But when you put it together with everything else” on the bill including USF charges, “you’re talking about significant increases.”
The FCC set 2019 rural benchmark rates for fixed voice and broadband services of eligible telecom carriers receiving high-cost USF support. Based on an urban rate survey (data here) and a "reasonable comparability" mandate, the rates cover ETCs with broadband duties, including rate-of-return incumbents and price-cap ILECs receiving Connect America Fund Phase II support, CAF II auction winners and rural broadband experiment providers. ETCs must certify by July 1 their monthly basic residential voice rates are no higher than a rural benchmark of $51.61, which is two standard deviations above the urban average of $26.98, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in Thursday's Daily Digest and docket 10-90. The PN said, absent further FCC action, ETCs will be subject to support reductions for any rate below the $26.98 rate floor, and must report such rates in annual Form 481 filings. Most rural broadband benchmark rates were set between $66.12 and $162.33, depending on data speeds and monthly usage allowances; Alaska Plan carrier rates were set between $113.19 and $232.38. For RoR and CAF II fixed service providers, the bureau raised a 170 GB monthly minimum usage allowance to 215 GB, based on updated Measuring Broadband America data.
FCC staff granted one and denied six requests to waive a deadline for USF Rural Health Care Program participants that failed to submit an invoice on time. Petitioners asked for review of Universal Service Administrative Co. decisions. The Wireline Bureau granted the request of Indiana Telehealth Network (ITH), which "demonstrated that it was unable to file the Healthcare Connect Fund invoice form on a timely basis due to a USAC technical system issue," said Thursday's order in docket 02-60. It denied requests of six petitioners that "failed to present compelling explanations for their delay in seeking reimbursement": Charter Advanced Services, Charter Communications, Charter FiberLink CC VIII, Charter Fiberlink CCO, District Health Department No. 10 and Hancock Rural Telephone (also ITH).
The FCC should revise must-vote rules, limit participation of bureau staff in advisory committees, allow commissioners to offer amendments during open meetings, establish mandatory sunsets for rules and change many other procedures, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly blogged Thursday listing 61 proposed revisions. “It's now time to publicly release these medium, small, and tiny, mostly non-mutually exclusive ideas, and have each produce feedback on its merits or pitfalls,” O’Rielly said in a brief introductory paragraph to his proposed list, which doesn’t offer detailed explanation of proposals. Though he lists a six items as partially implemented. An aide told us there’s no “concrete timeline” for enacting any of them though they have been raised with the office of Chairman Ajit Pai.
Withdrawal of both holds on Senate confirmation of FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to a full five-year term ends the main hurdle to approval of him and Democratic FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks. But dynamics in the Senate continue to cloud their chances for confirmation this year. Senate leaders have been working since June to advance the nominees as a pair (see 1806270065). Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, lifted his hold on Carr (see 1812200033) in concert with the formal end of a separate hold by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. President Donald Trump would need to renominate Carr and Starks for the Senate to reconsider them in 2019.
The FCC approved National Exchange Carrier Association proposals for modifying a USF formula for determining 2019 "average schedule" rate-of-return telco high-cost loop support. The Wireline Bureau said NECA's cost-per-loop calculations appear "accurate and complete," no comments were filed, said an order in Wednesday's Daily Digest and docket 05-337. The current HCLS formula approved Oct. 23, 2017, is expected to provide $6.24 million in payments to 97 average schedule study areas in 2018. NECA’s proposed formula for 2019 projects about $7.01 million in payments to carriers serving 102 average schedule study areas.
The FCC OK'd Hilliary Acquisition's planned buy of Tatum Telephone and Electra Telephone, subject to a USF condition to address cost-shifting concerns. The combining Texas companies receive high-cost support from different mechanisms: cost-based and model-based. "We grant the Applications subject to the condition adopted in the Hargray/ComSouth Order" (see 1805110048), said a Wireline Bureau public notice in Wednesday's Daily Digest and docket 18-301. "The combined operating expense of Tatum, Electra, Medicine Park, and any other rate-of-return affiliates shall be capped at the averaged combined operating expense of the three calendar years preceding the transactions’ closing date for which the operating expense data are available." The cap will last seven years or less, if the combined entity converts all support to one mechanism. The bureau cleared Tofane Global SAS/iBasis, conditioned on compliance with commitments and undertakings they agreed to with DOJ, said a PN in docket 18-136.
Alaska Communications asked the FCC to increase a USF rural healthcare budget to between $800 million and $1 billion for funding year 2019 (up from $581 million), with inflation increases thereafter. "Uncertainty of support under the Telecom Program in [FY] 2016, 2017, and now 2018, has driven healthcare providers out of the program, and wreaked havoc on service providers, all to the detriment of Americans that rely on the program in rural areas," the company told Wireline Bureau staffers, posted Tuesday in docket 17-310. "Demand will soon outstrip the current budget."