FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn urged USF reform, in a speech Monday to the WTA in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Last year, the FCC adopted reforms aimed at stabilizing the high-cost program, Clyburn said, according to written remarks. “Like with any significant reform, there are choppy waters ahead that need careful navigation.” Clyburn stressed the importance of partnerships, which “have the capability to help your bottom line, and provide a benefit for your communities.” The FCC needs to tweak some of its rules for rate-of-return carriers, she said. “I hear you when you talk about affordability, and the need to have flexibility to price your services as you see fit in the market,” she said. “I am concerned, about the affordability of rates in both rural and urban areas. It is a shame that deregulation has often meant higher rates in both urban and rural areas. But I believe rural areas should not be penalized, simply because of poor legislative or regulatory judgment. That is why I would support hitting the ‘pause’ button on rate floor increases, while we figure out a path forward that does not unduly impact rural consumers or the universal service fund.” Clyburn noted, as a Democrat, she's now in the minority at the FCC. She said she got used to that when she was a South Carolina regulator. “The difference in my role and status are readily apparent,” she said. “I was in the minority as a commissioner here in South Carolina for many years. ... I always start at the 50-yard line when it comes to formulating policy with anyone who may see the world differently than I do. … I will never entertain compromising my principles.” Among those principles, “removing consumer protections and harming competition are always going to be non-starters for me,” she said. “I will continue to sit at the table, even when we are discussing issues that have practical impacts that may make me uncomfortable.”
Nine small New York ILECs may recover revenue losses resulting from the phase-out of terminating access charges mandated by the FCC’s 2011 Connect America Fund order, the New York Public Service Commission ruled in an order released Friday. The commission decided the companies should receive the full amounts requested, adding up to a $47,490 total, the commission said. Eight of the companies requested additional state USF money to recover the revenue, while the ninth requested accelerated amortization of a deferred credit balance, the commission said.
The Kentucky Public Service Commission ended Lifeline support for about 149,000 cellphone users, refocusing funds on about 17,000 eligible elderly and rural customers with landlines, the state commission said in a Friday news release. Meanwhile, the Utah legislature passed a bill Thursday that includes making wireless companies eligible for state Lifeline support. Under the Kentucky PSC order, the state on May 1 will no longer give $3.50 monthly for low-income customers’ wireless services, it said. With the FCC phasing out Lifeline subsidies for landline voice services in December 2021, Kentucky will gradually increase its Lifeline subsidy for those services to $7.50 per month, it said. With far fewer customers to be supported by Kentucky Lifeline, the state USF surcharge on customer phone bills will drop to 3 cents from 14 cents on July 1, the PSC said. The commission launched a review of the state USF in February last year after seeing the fund was on the verge of running out, a problem also seen in other states (see 1607010010). The agency decided an increasing number of wireless customers qualifying for Lifeline shrank the USF balance, it said. Last March, the PSC tried increasing the contribution surcharge to 14 cents from 8 cents, but then three more wireless providers with about 85,000 Lifeline customers applied for state Lifeline funds, it said. Supporting them would have required the PSC to increase the surcharge again to 21 cents, but the agency decided that was an unreasonable burden for the public, it said: “What is clear is that the program cannot continue in its current form.” Low-income customers can still get a $9.25 monthly federal subsidy for wireless service and competition should keep wireless rates low even without the state Lifeline subsidy, it said. In Utah, another state with a shrinking USF fund, the legislature passed SB-130, which includes a provision adding wireless Lifeline support. The Senate voted 26-0 Thursday to concur with a House amendment after the House voted 74-0 in support the same day. It says telecom companies providing access lines, connections or wholesale broadband internet access service qualify for state USF distributions. It requires each provider to contribute to the USF and requires the PSC to develop a method for calculating the amount of each contribution. The bill could add revenue to the state USF, said a fiscal note Monday (see 1703060050).
Lifeline providers asked the FCC to deny TracFone and Sprint requests for clarification of mobile broadband minimum standards for the low-income USF subsidy program. A group of mobile "eligible telecom carriers" said Lifeline rules don't require ETCs to provide smartphones to subscribers, but they agreed consumers receiving offers of mobile broadband internet access service (BIAS) should have devices that can handle such service. "A 3G-capable feature phone with web browsing functionality used in connection with a plan offering the minimum required data allotment enables consumers to access BIAS in a manner that meets the FCC’s mobile BIAS minimum service standards," said the reply, posted Friday in docket 11-42, by Assist Wireless, American Broadband and Telecommunications, Blue Jay Wireless, Easy Telephone Services and Amerimex Communications. The rules don't "limit the definition of mobile BIAS to licensed, cellular data connections," they wrote: "The Commission should continue to advance the central goals of innovation and consumer choice in the Lifeline Modernization Order by permitting Lifeline providers to offer consumers meaningful alternatives to traditional cellular data, including mobile BIAS plans that rely on alternative technologies such as unlicensed spectrum." TracFone replied that Sprint, consumer groups and a state regulatory commission shared its concerns "about abuses of the minimum service standards and the abuse" of a 12-month "port-freeze" rule (see 1703030025). Telrite replied the FCC shouldn't play "innovation gatekeeper" in Lifeline but let consumers decide which offerings work best for them.
Sandwich Isles Communications (SIC) alleged FCC "procedural irregularities" and questioned agency motives since it subjected the carrier to $77 million in USF repayment duties and proposed fines for violations and apparent violations of the high-cost program in Hawaii Dec. 5 (see 1612060032). The commission recently sought comment on a Hawaii Department of Hawaiian Home Lands request for guidance on whether an exclusive DHHL license held by the company violates a Communications Act mandate for the FCC to remove telecom market entry barriers. "The putative licensing issue raised in the February 6 Public Notice was not mentioned in either of the substantive orders issued" Dec. 5, SIC replied in docket 10-90 Thursday: "One of the two public notices specified in the Notice of Apparent Liability ('NAL') was not issued until a few days AFTER the February 6 Public Notice. And, in the unseemly haste to issue the DHHL 'request', the Public Notice truncates the DHHL submission to make it appear that the issue is extremely narrow and the outcome self-evident." SIC complained the comment period was too short and its request for an extension was ignored. "There is reason for SIC to be concerned that the Commission may be, at best, uninterested in the merits of any aspect of this matter, that it regards the outcome of the proceedings as a foregone conclusion, and that its sole purpose is to force SIC to discontinue its service to the HHL so as to allow the ILECs to cherry pick the urbanized areas of the HHL without interference from an [eligible telecom carrier] such as SIC," the company wrote. Supplementing comments of its parent Waimana Enterprises (see 1702280063), SIC said its license doesn't preclude competition in the HHL and criticized how the FCC framed the issue. The agency declined comment Friday.
The Trump administration evidently has “a comprehensive approach to infrastructure” at the “very top of mind,” said NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield in a blog post about a Thursday meeting at the White House as part of the Rebuild Rural Coalition “to meet with the special assistant to the president for Infrastructure as well as the special assistant to the president for Agriculture.” Representatives of Capitol Hill leadership, the Farm Credit Council, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, other groups and the Agriculture Department were also present, she said. “I talked as quickly as I could to share some key points in terms of sharing insights on leveraging existing broadband programs that help with the business case for investment,” Bloomfield said. “Putting supplemental resources into high-cost USF will bring more bang for the buck immediately, rules are clear, targeting is good and accountability is high. In addition, permitting and siting -- federal lands, state highways, and railroads all have an impact.” The administration is in the process of putting together an infrastructure proposal now for Capitol Hill. Bloomfield testified on broadband infrastructure before the Senate Commerce Committee earlier this month (see 1703010075).
Congress should continue to back the Rural Utilities Service’s “Broadband Loan program that is subjected to the Farm Bill reauthorization process at or above current funding levels as you formulate recommendations,” testified Craig Cook, chief operations officer of Hill Country Telephone Cooperative in Texas, Thursday on behalf of NTCA before a House Agriculture subcommittee. The committee also should “continue its long history of support for the Telecommunications Infrastructure and Community Connect programs,” Cook said in written testimony. The RUS nonduplication policies should be enshrined in law, he recommended: “Congress should codify a prohibition on USDA financing new fiber or other broadband-capable infrastructure through any RUS or other USDA program where an existing network deployed by a different carrier was also financed through a RUS or other USDA program. This non-duplication provision should apply to all USDA programs, and should also extend to preclude overbuilding of other carriers’ networks that receive USF High-Cost support as administered by the FCC.” He also called permitting regulations “significant obstacles” worth addressing: “While permits serve an important public purpose, we’d encourage streamlining federal approval processes to the extent possible, and to the extent that RUS can help in standardizing processes with land-managing and property-managing agencies and in improving timelines for historical preservation coordination, that would be a significant help in speeding and reducing the costs of deployment.”
Sorenson Communications said an FCC draft Further NPRM "missed an opportunity" to explore "less regulatory" proposals for new video relay service compensation rates, though it praised agency transparency in releasing text and its effort to provide "certainty and stability." The largest VRS provider urged the FCC to seek comment on a "market-based" auction proposal for setting price caps that the company outlined this week. GlobalVRS, a smaller provider, rejected Sorenson's plan. Commissioners tentatively plan to vote March 23 on a draft VRS order, FNPRM and notice of inquiry that prominently sought comment on the proposals of smaller providers to increase rates except for the highest traffic tier covering Sorenson, which would be cut further (see 1703020070 and 1703030053).
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai sought to stick to bipartisan ground during his first appearance as chief before Congress Wednesday. He emphasized broadband deployment and other areas of potential cooperation. Senate Commerce Committee Democrats pressed Pai on President Donald Trump and tried to box him in on a possible FCC role overseeing AT&T buying Time Warner. Pai avoided giving details on how he may address the 2015 open internet order. He did say the FCC is likely to stick with the new plan, now in test mode, of releasing some draft items when they've been given to commissioners.
WTA lobbied the FCC for "full funding" of both rural telco USF subsidy mechanisms, the new Alternative Connect America Cost Model (ACAM) and the updated rate-of-return path. The rural telco group also urged the FCC to scrap or suspend a "rate floor in Section 54.328(b)" of the rules, and noted its agreement with then-Commissioner (now Chairman) Ajit Pai's rate-floor criticism in an April 23, 2014, dissent. "If nothing is done, many RLECs are going to have to raise their voice rates again -- this time, to $20 per month -- as of July 1," said a WTA filing Monday in docket 10-90 on a meeting with a Pai aide. Noting its petition for reconsideration, the group cited concerns about certain Lifeline USF rules, including minimum service standards that "render consumers who are otherwise eligible for Lifeline unable to receive support for the broadband services available to them." It also criticized a Lifeline voice support phaseout and a 12-month broadband "port-freeze" that "is confusing for consumers, complex to administer for small carriers, and encourages carries to 'lock-in' customers." Separately, WTA filed comments backing an Adak Eagle Enterprises recon petition of a Dec. 20 FCC decision not to extend to Adak a second ACAM offer.