Odds are increasingly slim of comprehensive overhaul of FCC intercarrier compensation rules or the Universal Service Fund this year or before Kevin Martin’s chairmanship ends, officials said. Intercarrier compensation issues are teed up for the Nov. 4 meeting, but FCC officials said they have seen nothing from the chairman’s office or the Wireline Bureau about what the chairman may envision. And most commissioners will be on travel the week of Oct. 20, complicating any discussions leading up to the meeting. An FCC official didn’t comment.
ORLANDO -- Due to more pressing issues, neither presidential candidate will focus on telecom policy immediately after the election, surrogates for Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John McCain, R-Ariz., said in a CompTel debate Tuesday. However, candidates are interested in telecom issues, differing on broadband deployment and network management, among other issues, surrogates said. Larry Irving, Internet Innovation Alliance co-chairman, represented Obama. Lee Dunn, a legislative aide to the McCain presidential campaign, took the Republican side.
ORLANDO -- The telecom industry still is divided on how to revamp intercarrier compensation, indicated speakers at a CompTel panel on the topic. The FCC appears to be teeing up the topic for a Nov. 4 vote. But in a late Monday panel, officials from AT&T, XO Communications the VON Coalition and the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates disagreed not only on overhaul proposals, but on whether the current system even needs fixing.
ORLANDO -- Rep. Chip Pickering, R-Miss., urged competitive telecom companies to form a Washington alliance to fight large phone company lobbying. In a CompTel keynote, he said the alliance should include Comcast, Sprint Nextel, Clearwire, Google and competitive local exchange carriers. A coalition of that scale could be effective in combating AT&T, Verizon and other large companies’ significant Hill presence, he said. Strategy aside, Pickering predicted sunny days for competitors. Election day and the financial crisis create new opportunities for CLECs to push policy goals, he said.
Broadcasters’ fears of more regulations on how to serve their communities (CD Sept 4 p4) won’t be realized in 2008, if comments by two FCC members -- one supporting new rules, the other opposing -- are a guide. Both Commissioner Michael Copps, long an advocate of localism rules, and Commissioner Robert McDowell, a foe of such rules, said Monday in separate interviews that the FCC is running out of time to address the issue this year. But Copps still wants comprehensive rule reform.
The FCC should adopt “competitively neutral” universal service program rules treating rural and urban areas equally, Maine’s Republican senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, to the agency in a letter. Eliminating the Interstate Access and Common Line Support rules, as proposed, would mean a 46 percent drop in USF support in Maine, they said. “We urge you to reject any proposal that would reduce funding for competitive carriers” because it would harm rural consumers and perhaps public safety, they said, urging that reforms not favor any technology.
USCellular CEO John Rooney Wednesday raised an alert about proposed changes in Universal Service Fund rules, likely teed-up for the FCC’s Nov. 4 agenda meeting. He said the changes could have a devastating effect on wireless carriers seeking money from the USF. Rooney said the proposed rule changes are huge for companies like USCellular, but they're getting limited attention with a little more than a month before the meeting. US Cellular also submitted to the FCC new poll data showing people want USF support for wireless in five states.
Rural carriers asked Congress to intervene in FCC efforts to overhaul intercarrier compensation. In a scathing letter to House and Senate members, CEO Michael Brunner of the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association condemned a $0.0007 uniform terminating access rate proposed for all traffic by AT&T, Verizon and others. The agency is “seriously considering” the proposal, which Brunner predicts would “wrongly relieve communications industry titans… of more than $8 billion in annual access and intercarrier compensation responsibilities,” he said: “For rural carriers alone, this disruption could jeopardize more than $2 billion” annually. The plan also would affect rural telecom lenders, which hold $9.1 billion total in loans, he said. Brunner condemned the idea of using the Universal Service Fund to replace carriers’ lost access revenue. USF “has already been strained by unbridled program growth resulting from regulatory lapses,” he said.
Pushing for a Universal Service Fund contribution revamp, AT&T and Verizon met Monday with Amy Bender, an aide to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. AT&T and Verizon contend that carriers should contribute to USF based on their phone number count, instead of interstate revenue (CD Sept 15 p2). The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates urged the FCC to reject numbers-based contribution. In a letter to Martin and other commissioners, NASUCA said moving to numbers is “unnecessary, will create new opportunities for arbitrage, and will not benefit consumers.” The interstate revenue base for USF “has been remarkably stable for the past six years,” it said. And a numbers system would require exemptions so some carriers don’t overpay, the association said. The exemptions would open new opportunities for fraud, it said. And because a numbers system would treat interstate and intrastate traffic the same, a customer who doesn’t call long distance often would have to pay higher USF fees, the association said.
Telecom carriers receiving universal service support for rural services would have to provide roaming services to any carrier upon request, according to a bill (HR-7000) introduced Wednesday by House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. Roaming services would have to be offered on “just and reasonable terms” anywhere, the bill said. If carriers don’t want to allow roaming, they could seek FCC permission to opt out of USF support, the bill said.