The House Commerce Committee moved forward with a Wednesday hearing on the Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s (Lift) America Act (HR-2741) despite the simultaneous torpedoing of talks between President Donald Trump and top Capitol Hill Democrats on a plan to pay for additional spending on broadband and other infrastructure projects. HR-2741 would allocate $40 billion for broadband projects, offer $12 billion in grants for implementing next generation-911 technologies and $5 billion for federal funding of a loan and credit program for broadband projects. Democrats first filed the bill in 2017 (see 1706020056).
Facing a state USF balance surplus, the Missouri Public Service Commission will consider increasing state USF support for the Lifeline and Disabled Programs and to suspend USF assessment, it said Monday. The commission opened docket TO-2019-0346 after staff recommended increasing the discount for Lifeline and Disabled subscribers to $24 monthly for subscribers to the disabled program and $14.75 for Lifeline subscribers from $15.75 and $6.50, respectively. “A significant decline in the number of subscribers supported by the Missouri USF is creating a growing fund balance surplus,” staff said in its recommendation. “Suspending the assessment and increasing the amount of per subscriber Missouri USF support is a reasonable way to reduce the fund balance over several years.” Comments are due June 4.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted an FCC motion by dismissing (in Pacer) an appeal by Sandwich Isles Communications in a dispute over the amount of improper USF payments that the telco must return to the agency (see 1903280036). SIC missed its filing deadline by one day, the D.C. Circuit said, so the court lacks jurisdiction over an appeal. Early this year, the FCC issued a public notice that the government shutdown wouldn't impact any effective dates for actions related to the agency, the one-page court order noted. "The notice also explicitly stated that it did not affect the effective date of the Commission’s actions or dates for filing with entities other than the Commission." The carrier didn't comment.
S&P changed its outlook to “negative” for GCI Liberty following a weaker than expected Q1. Last fall, the FCC told GCI it would reduce its Rural Health Care payments from the USF for the 2017 funding year by 26 percent. The carrier has appealed (see 1811130040). If the agency's decision stands, the same cost methodology will apply to the RHC funding in subsequent years, the telco said in a May 9 earnings report. S&P Wednesday downgraded to ‘B-‘ GCI’s issuer credit rating. The cable and telco provider didn't comment Thursday.
The National Tribal Telecommunications Association has "significant concerns with the broadband testing protocols" in July's order on measuring speed and latency at recipients of high-cost USF support for fixed locations, NTTA wrote the FCC on Tuesday. The group backed some NTCA and rural broadband advocate WTA fears on broadband performance testing. Testing protocols aren't "ready and will not be ready in time for testing to begin" in Q3, NTTA wrote, in a letter posted Wednesday in docket 10-90. "NTTA shares NTCA’s and WTA’s concerns about the requirement for carriers to test outside their networks, speeds and tiers to be tested, incompatible CPE [customer premises equipment], and the starting date." NTTA didn't immediately answer our questions. Other telecom groups have USF speed/latency worries (see 1905140019). The commission will "be addressing the issue in the near future," emailed a spokesperson.
A Connecticut bill to resolve a long-standing fight about municipal broadband is headed to the Senate floor. SB-846 got wide support from the Joint Finance Committee, which voted 42-6 Tuesday. It clarifies local governments may use a reserved space on poles called the “municipal gain” for municipal broadband. Frontier Communications claims the bill would stunt broadband growth.
House Communications Subcommittee Democrats criticized FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on a range of actions during a Tuesday hearing. That fulfilled expectations House Commerce Committee's oversight of the majority-GOP commission would be more critical since Democrats gained a majority in the chamber (see 1905140060). Lawmakers' ire was tempered by other communications policy interests. Top House Communications members used the hearing as a venue to float legislative proposals on broadband infrastructure, C-band spectrum reallocation and 911 fee diversion.
House Communications Subcommittee Democrats' widely expected airing of grievances against FCC Chairman Ajit Pai at a Wednesday oversight hearing is likely to be tempered by their interest in a range of telecom policy priorities and subcommittee Republicans' bid to deflect some of their colleagues' ire, officials and lobbyists told us. The hearing, which also includes the other four commissioners, will be the subcommittee's first on oversight of the agency since Democrats gained a majority in the chamber after the November elections. The hearing begins at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
CenturyLink, which may sell its consumer business, is also looking with interest at the coming FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. It's "initiated a strategic alternatives process for its Consumer business and has engaged external advisors to assist in the review," the telco said Wednesday. "The Company does not plan to modify its normal operations or investment patterns in these businesses while it undertakes this review." The carrier is "comfortable operating this business for the long term, but the strategic review will help us better understand whether there are opportunities to better maximize the value of this asset," said CEO Jeff Storey.
Telecom policy issues ultimately drew the most attention during a Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee hearing Tuesday on the FCC and FTC FY 2020 budget requests, including work to combat illegal robocalls and reallocate spectrum to support 5G. Some subcommittee members also talked about what language the FTC and FCC believe should be in a final privacy legislative package, though that garnered far less focus than expected (see 1905020057). President Donald Trump’s administration proposed more than $335.6 million in combined FY 2020 funding for the FCC and its Office of Inspector General and $312.3 million for the FTC (see 1903180063).