FCC staff set procedures for filing annual access charge tariffs and tariff review plans (TRPs) for price-cap incumbent local exchange carriers and rate-of-return ILECs. A Wireline Bureau order Thursday in docket 17-65 "sets an effective date of July 1, 2017, for the July 2017 annual access charge tariff filings made on 15 days’ notice; sets a modified effective date of July 3, 2017, for the July 2017 annual access charge tariff filings made on 7 days’ notice; establishes the dates for filing petitions to suspend or reject an [ILEC] tariff filing and replies to such petitions; and addresses service of the petitions and replies." The order also set May 17 as the date for price-cap ILECs to file short-form TRPs. The FCC's 2011 USF-intercarrier compensation overhaul order requires ILECs "to adjust, over a period of years, many of their switched access charges effective on July 1 of each of those years," the bureau said.
Aspiring Lifeline broadband providers and others urged the FCC to reinstate nine companies whose LBP designations were revoked by a Wireline Bureau order that Chairman Ajit Pai defends. State regulators opposed reinstatement and urged the commission to repeal its LBP process, which they say illegally bypasses state authority to designate carriers eligible for the USF Lifeline subsidies. LBP aspirants urged the FCC to at least make providers eligible for the program's low-income support in states where the federal commission has jurisdiction. Parties filed comments posted Thursday and Friday in docket 11-42 on requests to reconsider the Feb. 3 revocation order (see 1702030070 and 1703020059).
FCC staff granted two waivers from an invoicing deadline in the E-rate USF program subsidizing school and library broadband/telecom services and connections. The Wireline Bureau waived a requirement that E-rate applicants seek an extension before an invoice filing deadline applying to those "for whom the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) had not, as of October 31, 2016, issued the FCC Form 498 ID, and who therefore were unable to submit an invoice." The bureau directed USAC to grant such applicants a 30-day extension. It also granted a rule waiver "for several petitioners that properly requested an invoice deadline extension but failed to timely file their invoice filings due to circumstances beyond their control, including USAC’s inability to timely process their invoice deadline extension requests," in an order Thursday in docket 02-6.
Sandwich Isles Communications hit an FCC proposal to initiate proceedings to revoke the carrier's licenses, including under Communications Act Section 214. The commission's Dec. 5 notice of apparent liability against the company for alleged USF violations "is based on a series of premises that are factually and legally unfounded," SIC said in comments posted Thursday in docket 16-405 responding to a Feb. 14 public notice (see 1702140063). "The more this proceeding moves along, the more transparent the Commission’s motives become, that is, to put SIC out of business to the detriment of the people of the Hawaiian Home Lands ('HHL') based on the FCC’s prejudgments rather than the actual evidence and law." The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission said it didn't object to the FCC initiating revocation proceedings against SIC licenses. The HPUC "shares the FCC's commitment to maintain service to all customers on Hawaiian Home Lands, and stands ready to work with the FCC to take appropriate action and coordinate efforts to ensure that said service will be provided," the regulator commented. Scores of individuals in the docket generally supported SIC.
Recent changes to the USF high-cost fund resulting in a budget shortfall will mean fewer areas without broadband will be reached, delivering comparatively lower speeds and higher rural consumer broadband rates, said Kurt Gruendling, vice-president-marketing and business development at Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom (WCVT) in Vermont and on behalf of NTCA, in testimony prepared for a House Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Subcommittee hearing Thursday. "This budget shortfall cuts support to companies like WCVT that still need to upgrade portions of their network, and it thus undermines the ability of committed companies like WCVT to deliver -- and keep delivering -- on the promise of broadband that creates Smart Rural Communities," he said, referring to the NTCA initiative to deploy broadband-enabled applications to improve community services. It's just as critical to sustain network infrastructure and affordability of services, citing challenges of distance and density, he said. Otherwise, he said rural Americans don't get the benefits of broadband and it's a "terrible waste of resources" to build it. The hearing focused on how communities use technologies to serve their residents in various ways. Other witnesses included representatives from Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Pittsburgh; and Portland, Oregon.
Arizona Corporation Commissioners voted unanimously to adopt a state broadband fund for rural schools. At an ACC meeting Tuesday, they approved amendments to state USF rules to set up the $8 million state-matching fund, which will allow Arizona to take advantage of up to $100 million in federal E-rate Category One funding for broadband (see 1701300033). The commission released a proposed order March 7, but the final decision wasn't immediately available Tuesday. In the days leading up to the vote, companies continued to demand limits on fund distribution. In Monday comments, Cox urged the commission to say funding is for last-mile projects only and not for overbuilding. The ACC should make clear that the agency isn't extending its regulatory authority to broadband services, the cable operator said.
Rural telcos said "illogical and inequitable" application of a USF budget control mechanism (BCM) is hindering rural telco broadband expansion. NTCA and other industry representatives targeted a Universal Service Administrative Co. calculation of reduced high-cost loop support (HCLS) under the BCM. For rate-of-return telcos subject to a "parent trap" rule, they said USAC was multiplying a per-line reduction amount by a carrier's total lines, including acquired lines not eligible for HCLS. "Acquired lines that are not eligible for HCLS have no impact on the demand for HCLS and overall rate-of-return carrier high-cost support, and thus have no bearing on the BCM being effectuated," said accounting firm Moss Adams' filings (here and here) posted Tuesday in docket 10-90 on meetings with aides to all three FCC commissioners and Wireline Bureau staffers. The rural telcos urged the FCC to "restore fairness" by ensuring the BCM per-line component isn't applied to HCLS-ineligible "parent-trapped lines." The officials also "discussed the unintended consequences that the Maximum Average Per Location Construction Project Loop Plant Investment Limitation (Limitation) of the Capital Investment Allowance for rate-of-return carriers may have on broadband investment and deployment," said the filing, which said the rule was eliminating all associated investment, not limiting excess investment. "We also discussed other general concerns that are causing confusion among rate-of-return carriers on the calculation of the Limitation and the additional accounting and regulatory burdens resulting from these calculations."
The FCC proposed a Q2 industry USF contribution factor of 17.4 percent of interstate and international telecom service revenue from end users, said a public notice from the Office of Managing Director in docket 96-45 in Tuesday's Daily Digest. Telecom consultant Billy Jack Gregg projected March 2 the contribution factor would rise from Q1's 16.7 percent due to a drop in industry revenue (see 1703020079).
The FCC E-rate funding cap was raised to $3.99 billion for the 2017 funding year beginning July 1 to account for inflation, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Monday in docket 02-6. It was a 1.3 percent increase from the current $3.94 cap, the PN said. It noted the commission in 2010 began to index the E-rate USF budget for inflation to ensure the USF subsidy program keeps pace with school and library broadband/telecom needs.
NTCA urged prompt FCC action to address concerns about a USF "rate floor" that's having "continuing adverse effects" on consumers of rural telcos. "The rate floor policy yields no benefits with respect to managing universal service fund budgets, but at this point -- after several years of serial rate increases -- is only harmful and disruptive to rural consumers, especially given that the lack of affordable standalone broadband services makes it more difficult for those same rural consumers to cease purchasing voice service even as it becomes increasingly expensive," the rural telco group said in a filing posted Monday in docket 10-90 on a "follow-on" conversation with an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. NTCA said "an immediate pause to any further rate floor increase would only help rural consumers and afford the Commission reasonable time to consider on a more informed basis any next steps with respect to the policy."