FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr confirmed he's focusing on federal rules that affect wireless infrastructure deployment, in remarks Wednesday at WISPAmerica in Cincinnati. It's expected to be a big FCC infrastructure focus (see 1902200048). “We will look to fully and faithfully implement the decisions Congress has made to streamline the deployment of next-generation technologies,” Carr said. “We will push the government to be more pro-infrastructure by eliminating needless restrictions on siting wireless facilities.” He highlighted at the Wireless ISP Association conference the work the FCC has done, including two orders and the trips he made to see deployment across the U.S. While working on the September order, “I was struck by the difference between the attitudes of civic leaders in some of our biggest coastal cities and those leaders elsewhere in the country,” Carr said. “A few of the big city mayors recognize that they have leverage over the buildout of broadband. If you’re in New York City or San Jose in Silicon Valley, you might get robust broadband service almost regardless of what the politicians do.” Carr said he's also focused on USF support for broadband and getting more spectrum in play, especially the C-band. The Carr road trip continues. Carr tweeted Wednesday about a visit to Tuf-Tug, an Ohio plant that makes safety bolts used in towers. With 5G rolling out, the company says orders are up 25 percent over the past two years, he said.
Commenters backed an FCC proposal to eliminate an E-rate amortization rule it already waived for the duration of a rulemaking (see 1901310061), with rural telcos suggesting steps to prevent overbuilding of subsidized broadband networks. The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition endorsed earlier State E-rate Coordinators' Alliance support for scrapping the requirement that schools and libraries amortize over three years upfront, nonrecurring charges of $500,000 or more, including for "special construction" projects. "Requiring service providers to recover their costs over several years could discourage broadband providers from submitting bids for E-rate services," SHLB filed. Comments were posted through Tuesday in docket 19-2. The American Library Association (here), Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology, New Mexico's Public Schools Facilities Authority (here), NTCA and three Texas rural telcos also backed the proposal. The IDIT cited "low" risk that large "Category One" special construction projects providing connectivity to schools and libraries would leave insufficient E-rate funding for "Category Two" internal-connection requests. If the FCC is concerned, the Illinois department suggested a "cap on individual funding commitments for Category One non-recurring, one-time upfront special construction charges in the range of $30 million of the total project cost." NTCA said the FCC should promote better coordination between USF programs and ensure that existing rural broadband investments backed by high-cost subsidies "are not put at risk via duplicative overbuilding." Similarly, Central Texas Telephone Cooperative, Peoples Telephone Cooperative and Totelcom Communications urged new competitive bidding safeguards to "discourage overbuilding of existing federally supported fiber networks."
GCI Communication asked the FCC to reconsider a public notice that "purports" to give providers rate guidance for the USF rural healthcare telecom program (see 1902190031). The Wireline Bureau's Feb. 15 PN "entirely disregards detailed, on-the-record objections to which the Commission is legally obligated to respond and which show the guidance to be irrational and counterproductive, ignoring relevant evidence of market-based prices," petitioned GCI, posted Tuesday in docket 17-130: "It will be vulnerable on judicial review." Alaska Communications last week said the PN guidance "appears to overlook ... pragmatic realities" (see 1903140062).
An appeals court rejected Blanca Telephone’s second petition seeking review of FCC orders that the company repay $6.75 million in USF subsidies the agency says the telco had received in error. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in December 2017 rejected on procedural grounds Blanca’s pursuit of a stay of repayment (see 1712290036). The telco petitioned the court for a second review. The 10th Circuit's March 12 order, posted by the FCC Friday, said because “motion for agency reconsideration remains pending,” the court “is without jurisdiction over the petition for review.”
There's still a good chance some House Republicans will support the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill (HR-1644), said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., on an episode of C-SPAN's The Communicators that was set to have been televised over the weekend. HR-1644 and Senate companion S-682, filed earlier this month, would add a new title to the Communications Act that would overturn the FCC order rescinding its 2015 rules, retroactively restoring reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 1903060077). House Communications Republicans railed against the bill during a legislative hearing last week, leading some lobbyists to predict a party-line vote on the measure at markup later this month (see 1903120078).
Alaska Communications said FCC rural healthcare program rate guidance in a Feb. 15 Wireline Bureau public notice "appears to overlook ... pragmatic realities" of the USF mechanism. "To the Bureau’s credit, it is attempting to improve predictability and transparency," filed the carrier Wednesday in docket 17-310. "But such efforts will not succeed until the Commission modernizes its rules and puts the program on solid footing, with clear rules and processes announced in advance, a predictable funding schedule, and accountability for all." Alaska Communications noted seemingly "elementary" guidance that service providers should determine the rural rate before responding to a healthcare provider's request for bids and ensure the rate is sufficiently documented. That "overlooks the challenges faced by service providers in determining the rural rate under the current rules, and fails to account for the role of [Universal Service Administrative Co.] and the Commission in making this determination," the carrier wrote. Because "rules provide a series of options for determining the rural rate that must be applied sequentially, the service provider often has no assurance when it places a bid ... whether or under which option the rural rate will satisfy USAC."
The FCC's proposed USF contribution factor for Q2 is 18.8 percent of carriers' U.S. interstate and international telecom end-user revenue (see 1903010024), said an Office of Managing Director public notice Wednesday in docket 96-45. That would be down from Q1's 20 percent. The proposal will take effect if the commission takes no further action within 14 days.
The FCC announced legacy USF amounts available to price-cap telcos and fixed competitive eligible telecom carriers after authorization of Connect America Fund Phase II auction support. Carriers declining the "phase down support" have until April 11 to provide notice, state by state, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in Wednesday's Daily Digest and docket 10-90. A CAF transition order adopted Feb. 14 (see 1902140032) decided "price cap carriers receiving legacy CAF Phase I frozen support prior to the CAF Phase II auction will continue receiving such support in areas won at auction until the first day of the month following the authorization of CAF Phase II support in the same areas," said the PN. "In auction-eligible areas not won at auction, price cap carriers will continue receiving legacy support for an interim period. Fixed competitive ETCs, however, will begin receiving two-thirds of their total frozen legacy support beginning the first day of the month following the first authorization of any CAF Phase II auction support nationwide, and will receive one-third of their support the following year, before their legacy support is eliminated." A Wireline Bureau PN Tuesday in docket 10-90 and others said certain high-cost USF waiver petitions filed 2006-2013 would be dismissed unless petitioners state their intention within 45 days to pursue them.
CenturyLink asked FCC staff to not enforce USF withholding penalties and reporting rules, pending resolution of its petition to reconsider a staff determination and Universal Service Administrative Co. broadband deployment findings. A Feb. 22 Wireline Bureau letter notified CenturyLink it's "subject to these penalties and enhanced reporting requirements based on the Bureau’s determination that CenturyLink missed its 40 percent interim deployment milestone for Connect America Fund ('CAF') Phase II in Arkansas, Kansas, Montana, and Wisconsin," said the telco's stay filing in docket 10-90 posted Wednesday. Saying the bureau has no timetable for acting on that petition and USAC will begin withholding $4.45 million monthly in CAF support later in March, the carrier sought expedited consideration of its stay request: "These losses could well be unrecoverable. If CenturyLink’s support is withheld as ordered in the Noncompliance Letter, this may interfere with the company’s ability to continue to deploy broadband to additional locations. Under the CAF-II rules, the company is subject to graduated deployment milestones with each passing year, and significant penalties if it does not complete at least 95 percent of its total required deployment by the end of 2020." USAC auditors declined to verify certain locations as served "because of purported mismatches between the geocoordinate and address information in CenturyLink’s records and the coordinates and address information CenturyLink reported to USAC," said the recon petition. It cited "industrywide discussions" with regulators on multi-dwelling unit locations and "shortcomings" in USAC's high cost universal broadband (HUBB) system, and additional locations it reported Feb. 27 in the HUBB. The additional locations combined "with the Mismatch Locations alone, are sufficient to bring CenturyLink’s total locations served above the 40 percent compliance milestone," it said, suggesting recognition of other served locations would further increase compliance.
An Oregon House panel cleared a state USF measure to establish a broadband fund, increase the maximum surcharge to 7 percent and expand the definition of retail telecom service to include wireless and VoIP. The House Economic Development Committee voted 7-4 Monday for HB-2184, referring the measure to the Revenue and Ways and Means committees. The broadband fund would provide grants and loans in unserved and underserved areas for at least 25 Mbps download/3 Mbps up. The panel adopted an amendment that would cap the fund at $30 million annually for basic phone service and transfer to the broadband fund the lesser of $10 million or the remainder of USF money above that $30 million. Four Republican committee members voted no at the webcast work session. Rep. Christine Drazan (R) wants to let the new state broadband office (see 1812200048) "get up and running, and identify what the projects are and what the actual scope of the need is, before moving forward with a specific measure.” Rep. Kim Wallan (R) wants to see a broadband map before giving money, she said. The Public Utility Commission last year held off voting on requiring VoIP to contribute to state USF (see 1811280057).