Joe Biden's presidential transition team for the FCC is starting to take shape, but it's early on given most national news organizations declared his win Saturday. President Donald Trump hasn’t conceded. A few names are emerging for the landing team, and a final list isn't likely until after Thanksgiving, stakeholders said in interviews. Team leaders from former President Barack Obama's interregnum 12 years ago said cooperation from the outgoing administration is critical.
The New York Public Service Commission should renew state USF for two years under a settlement that the New York Department of Public Service reached with Verizon, small ILECs, the Public Utility Law Project (PULP) and others, PULP said Friday in docket 15-M-0742. After “protracted negotiations,” the “normally adversarial” parties reached agreement on the joint proposal, which “represents a measured response to the problems identified in the record, and advances the public interest,” the consumer advocate said. State USF will expire Dec. 31, so the proposal would renew it for two more years from Jan. 1. Contributors would pay $6.25 million in 2021 and $6 million in 2022, with any unused funds from the previous term to be carried over, the proposal said. Parties agreed not to seek to expand the contribution base until after Dec. 31, 2022, and the contribution method will be the same revenue-based method from 2019, it said. PULP Executive Director Richard Berkley expects the New York PSC to take up the item at its December meeting, he said.
State commissioners can influence broadband policy even with limited telecom authority, said NARUC broadband task force members at the association’s virtual annual meeting Thursday. Utility regulators’ telecom role “has diminished significantly” in most states, but they can still “play the role of honest broker,” said Idaho Public Utilities Commissioner Paul Kjellander, who next week becomes NARUC president. Collaboration with federal government is a must, said other commissioners.
New Mexicans voted to switch from an elected Public Regulation Commission to one that's governor-appointed, with 55% voting yes Tuesday. It's the 40th state with appointed commissioners. A key state telecom commissioner will continue in her job, and many other elected incumbents also appeared to hold seats, showed state results Wednesday (see 2011040019). Denver is the latest and largest city to opt out of Colorado’s ban on municipal broadband.
The FCC proposed a $75,000 fine for U.S. South Communications for allegedly failing repeatedly to respond to Universal Service Administrative Co. demands for records used in USF verification, the Enforcement Bureau said Monday. It said U.S. South hadn't turned over records justifying what was reported in its 2018 and 2019 telecom reporting worksheets. The company didn't comment.
FCC nominee Nathan Simington’s Senate confirmation hinges on Tuesday's elections, lawmakers and other officials told us. Many of the hurdles for his confirmation would likely clear if President Donald Trump is reelected, but his prospects will likely be greatly diminished if Democratic nominee Joe Biden wins, lobbyists said.
Cable urged the Oregon Public Utility Commission to clarify that it’s not expanding authority over interconnected VoIP or commercial mobile radio services through an upcoming order to implement a law requiring those providers to pay into state USF. CMRS and VoIP aren’t telecom services that the PUC regulates, the Oregon Cable Telecommunications Association commented Thursday in docket AR 640. Cable and wireless clashed with traditional telco on broader USF changes earlier last week (see 2010270028).
The GAO said Friday it’s recommending the FCC “revise” its performance goals and measures for its high-cost USF program to ensure they're “measurable and quantifiable” to better align “with leading practices.” Doing so will allow the commission to “improve the performance information it uses in its decision-making processes about how to allocate the program’s finite resources,” the GAO said. It found in interviews with stakeholders that the high-cost program’s goals “generally reflect important and appropriate strategic objectives” but don’t meet the standards outlined in the Government Performance and Results Act that they be “objective, quantifiable, and measurable.”
Don’t spend state USF money where there's at least one unsubsidized provider, cable and wireless industries commented Monday in docket UM 2040 at the Oregon Public Utility Commission. Don't give support to any census block with at least one unsubsidized provider of voice or that was awarded federal or state high-cost or broadband funding, said the Oregon Cable Telecommunications Association. “The presence of an unsubsidized competitor should render an area ineligible for high cost support,” CTIA commented. The Oregon Telecommunications Association disagreed. Requiring OUSF only in areas without unsubsidized competition is "a premise that has no basis in statute,” it said. State law requires support "be provided to eligible telecommunications carriers in an amount that is equal to the difference between the cost of providing basic telephone service and the bench mark less any explicit compensation received by the carrier from federal sources specifically used to recover local loop costs and less any explicit support received by the carrier from a federal universal service program.” The Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board urged “a clearer understanding of competition from unsubsidized services and their potential impact on subsidized services.”
Oregon Public Utility Commissioners voted 3-0 Tuesday to lower the state USF surcharge to 5%, effective Jan. 1, a spokesperson said. The current rate is 8.5% (see 2010070029).