The FCC said the Lifeline national verifier will launch in five more states and one territory Monday: Hawaii, Idaho, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Guam. During the soft launch, Lifeline-eligible telecom carriers are allowed but not required to use the national verifier of consumer eligibility for the low-income USF subsidy program, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Thursday in docket 11-42. It said a hard launch requiring NV use will come later. An initial six states in a soft launch period are scheduled to go to a hard launch Nov. 2 -- Colorado, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming -- drawing some concerns (see 1810040045).
A hold Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, placed on FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr's reconfirmation remained in place Thursday night despite the commission's bid to fund payments to a top Alaska USF Rural Health Care (RHC) Program participant. The FCC Wireline Bureau said Wednesday evening it cleared Alaska telco General Communication Inc. to receive $77.8 million in RHC payments for FY 2017. Sullivan and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, told us that action alone won't fully resolve their concerns with FCC handling of the program, which led Sullivan to place the hold on Carr's confirmation to a full five-year term ending in 2023 (see 1809120056). Sullivan worries FCC handling of RHC negatively affected constituents (see 1809130059). The approved GCI payment figure is 26 percent less than the $105 million it sought. The agency required GCI and other RHC participants to substantiate rural telecom rates after finding two non-Alaska carriers apparently falsified documentation to inflate their rural rates, which the program subsidizes based on their differential with typically lower urban rates. The FCC proposed $40 million in fines against the two carriers. GCI didn't comment. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters he's aware of an FCC proposal “that addresses” concerns Sullivan and Murkowski raised about RHC “and we hope that this satisfies” them. The senators were still “getting feedback” on the proposal Thursday, Thune said. He said he hopes the FCC's actions might end Sullivan's hold so the Senate can confirm Carr and Democratic FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks as part of a pre-election package of nominees, though that appeared to be unlikely. Senate leaders were negotiating at our deadline on a deal that would leave the chamber in recess until after the November elections. Sullivan later told reporters he plans to meet with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai “next week” to follow up on his RHC concerns. Murkowski believes the FCC needs to address how it will provide “certainty” on processing Alaska providers' RHC applications in the future.
An FCC business data service deregulatory draft isn't looking very contentious as commissioners head toward a planned vote at their Oct. 23 meeting. Stakeholders aren't expecting major changes to the order and two Further NPRMs, though tweaks are possible. Rural telco representatives are largely supportive and no opposition has surfaced so far in the draft's docket.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, told us he had a phone call set for later Wednesday or Thursday with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on his concerns about FCC handling of the USF Rural Health Care (RHC) Program that led Sullivan to place a hold on Commissioner Brendan Carr’s reconfirmation to a full five-year term ending in 2023 (see 1809120056). Sullivan worries the FCC's handling of RHC negatively affected Alaska constituents, and says Pai didn't adequately respond (see 1809130059). Sullivan is maintaining his hold but “certainly would hope” the call with Pai results in progress. “I've only been talking to these guys about [RHC] for seven months now,” Sullivan said. The Senate Commerce Committee's August FCC oversight hearing showed the commission is “running a really important program in a haphazard way that nobody seems to understand,” Sullivan said in a late September interview. The FCC didn't comment. Confirmation of Carr and FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks has stalled repeatedly since Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., first tried to fast-track the two in June (see 1808230040).
AT&T and cable providers raised doubts about Oregon Public Utility Commission authority to make interconnected VoIP providers pay into the state USF. The PUC at a teleconferenced workshop Wednesday took feedback on a preliminary proposal in docket AR-615 to require VoIP contribution. The agency is exploring the idea despite a recent 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling -- contested by states -- that VoIP is an information service (see 1809280057). A few other states are also weighing changes.
The Trump administration is exploring ways to restart its infrastructure legislative push after the next Congress begins in January, and the proposal's contours will depend substantially on November's election outcome, lawmakers and lobbyists told us. A shift to a Democratic majority in either chamber would increase pressure on administration officials to include at least some elements of that caucus' infrastructure proposals, most notably dedicated broadband funding, industry officials said. The White House faces potential hurdles, including Democratic resistance to giving Donald Trump a bipartisan legislative win ahead of the 2020 presidential election and GOP appropriations woes.
A coming FCC draft order would extend operations expense relief to more tribal carriers, including Mescalero Apache Telecom and Sacred Wind Communications, said Chairman Ajit Pai. He responded to Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., who wrote to support the two carriers' petitions to reconsider (see 1805310032) an April order that allowed tribal-oriented carriers to recover higher opex costs from USF but excluded carriers that had deployed 10/1 Mbps broadband to 90 percent or more of locations (see 1804050028). Pai agrees the relief "did not go far enough" and believes "it was inappropriate to exclude carriers" such as Mescalero and Sacred Wind, which argue their actual deployment levels are below the threshold. "I have directed staff to circulate an order in the near future to fix this mistake," he wrote, hoping colleagues will be supportive. "The letter is very encouraging" because the two carriers "need this relief" and "the sooner the better," emailed consultant Randy Tyree Friday. Tyree, who represents Mescalero and the National Tribal Telecommunications Association, said the entire New Mexico congressional delegation is supportive.
Some parties object to the FCC's plan to require use of a Lifeline national verifier in six states without ensuring an electronic interface for carriers and database access to determine low-income consumer eligibility. Lifeline providers and a NARUC official said the NV's lack of an application programming interface and automated access to key databases will complicate eligibility verification, increasing administrative costs, burdening consumers and undermining enrollment.
Wireless carriers rejected legislative changes to Idaho USF, while rural LECs supported action but asked for more data on possible costs. The Idaho Public Utilities Commission asked in docket GNR-T-17-05 for recommendations for a possible legislative fix for state USF to present to the legislature next year (see 1808240017). Carriers disagree "with the premise that there is any need for changes to the funding mechanism for the IUSF in order to maintain the solvency,” said CTIA Director-State Regulatory Affairs Benjamin Aron in a Thursday letter: "Given the modest levels of the current surcharges there is considerable room to increase surcharge levels to offset the diminishing IUSF contribution base.” If the PUC must recommend legislative changes, it should either follow Washington state and support USF exclusively through general revenue using taxpayer funds, or Montana's “model of trusting the sufficiency of federal universal service support and declining to provide additional state funding,” Aron said. The Idaho Telecom Alliance wants legislative changes but said the state should first convene workshops and PUC staff should estimate costs of implementing various models used by neighboring states. Any device or service that connects to the public switched telephone network should be assessed a USF charge, and any carrier of last resort should be supported, the RLEC group said.
Bipartisan interest in federal broadband funding mechanisms and criticism of FCC coverage data collection practices dominated Thursday's Senate Commerce Committee hearing on rural broadband, as expected (see 1810030055). The panel also became a forum for Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and other committee members to tout broadband-related legislation eyed for potential combination into a package bill (see 1807250056).