Comments are due Nov. 9, replies Nov. 16 on a telecom industry petition for FCC reconsideration of a policy statement instituting treble damages for violations of rules for payments to USF and other funding programs. The pleading cycle was triggered Wednesday by Federal Register publication of an FCC notice, which created docket 16-330. "The policy statement adopts a new treble damages formula for calculating forfeitures for telecommunications service providers' failure: (1) to timely pay their assessments for the federal Universal Service Fund (USF), Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) Fund, local number portability (LNP), North American Numbering Plan (NANP) and regulatory fee programs; and (2) to file data required to assess payment obligations for these programs," said a petition filed March 6, 2015, by CTIA, NCTA, Comptel (now Incompas) and USTelecom (see 1503310052). The FCC's goals are laudable, the groups said, but the policy statement must be vacated because it wasn't promulgated with notice and comment under the Administrative Procedure Act. On substance, the treble damages policy is arbitrary and capricious, reflecting "a results-oriented effort by the Commission to drive the relevant forfeiture amounts as high as possible," said the groups, which pressed the agency in August to open a docket and seek comment on their petition (see 1608050061).
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler anticipates the Enforcement Bureau tiger teams “should be up and running” by early 2017, he told House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. That was one of the many written answers Wheeler supplied in a 40-page document sent to the House Commerce Committee this month. He and the other four commissioners were responding to questions for the record that lawmakers submitted after a July 12 FCC oversight hearing.
Democrats could take control of Louisiana's telecom regulator after commissioner elections, but no other such dramatic shifts are possible in states that elect utility commissioners. A Democrat running for a Republican seat at the Louisiana Public Service Commission -- and who has listed affordable internet as a campaign priority -- could give her party a 3-2 majority. In another race, NARUC Telecom Committee Chairman Chris Nelson is running for re-election in South Dakota. In total across the country, elections will be held for 17 state commissioner seats in 10 states.
CTIA warned the FCC to avoid a “premature schism” between state eligibility programs for Lifeline and the updated federal program as a Dec. 2 implementation deadline nears. The group joined state commissions and industry groups supporting a USTelecom petition to give some states more time to align their Lifeline rules with changes to the federal program that added broadband as a supported service to the low-income program. USTelecom asked for temporary waiver of certain rules so Lifeline providers can continue enrolling consumers in the federal USF low-income subsidy support program based on state-specific criteria in 25 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. State support was expected in comments due Friday in docket 11-42 (see 1610180028).
Charter Communications and T-Mobile were among those spending much more on lobbying in Q3 than a year earlier. Charter's lobbying expense was $1.99 million, vs. $980,000. Charter successfully acquired Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks in the interim. T-Mobile spent $2.17 million, up from $1.4 million.
The Kansas Corporation Commission reduced annual state USF support for RLECs by $411,976 and revised their originating intrastate access rates to bring them to parity with interstate rates. The RLECs will increase intrastate access revenue by a net $438,101. The changes will be effective July to coincide with FCC implementation of intercarrier compensation rules, the PSC said in the Tuesday order. Also, the PSC required RLECs to file revised intrastate access tariffs in a separate proceeding the KCC will open later on the FCC’s 2017 changes. Kansas commissioners raised alarm over falling state USF revenue, but a 2016 statute bars the commission from changing its revenue-based contribution method (see 1607010010).
The Missouri Public Service Commission supported a USTelecom petition to give some states more time to align state Lifeline rules with changes to the federal program that added broadband as a supported service to the low-income program. With an FCC implementation deadline coming early in December, multiple states are expected to support the USTelecom petition in comments due to the commission Friday in docket 11-42 (see 1610180028). The association asked for temporary waiver of certain rules so Lifeline providers can continue enrolling consumers in the federal USF low-income subsidy support program based on state-specific criteria in 25 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. In comments posted Wednesday, the Missouri PSC said it won’t meet the FCC Dec. 2 deadline because it faces a lengthy rulemaking process. Historically, getting a required fiscal impact review from the state Department of Economic Development has taken “a few weeks to over a year,” it said. “As a general rule a minimum of six months is needed to complete a formal rulemaking.”
Lack of affordability remains a major impediment to getting more people online nationwide, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said in a speech at the #Solutions2020 Policy Forum she hosted at the Georgetown Law School Wednesday. Clyburn has been on a listening tour across the U.S. (see 1604140052) and used the forum to share some of her observations.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is eyeing ways to incorporate broadband infrastructure funding into a potential national infrastructure funding bank, she said Tuesday at a conference in Minneapolis hosted by Broadband Communities Magazine. The “No. 1 goal is looking for innovative ways to finance,” Klobuchar said in a video of her remarks, mentioning she wants to look at USF and “see if we can do more there through FCC or congressional action.” She said creating a national infrastructure funding bank is a priority for the beginning of next Congress in 2017. “That would be a way to finance some major action,” said Klobuchar, a member of the Commerce Committee. “If we do that infrastructure bank, we can find a way for broadband to get itself in there somehow.” Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton proposed such a bank, and Klobuchar told us last month she's committed to advancing Clinton’s broader infrastructure plans for the first 100 days of the new Congress (see 1609230040). Klobuchar also noted broadband infrastructure funding opportunities during a September event of the Senate Broadband Caucus (see 1609220043), which on Tuesday she said would help spur action: “When people come together like that, it just sort of sends a message that we need to move on something.” She called Rural Utilities Service and USF funding in Minnesota “huge money coming in federally and we want that to continue.” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and she successfully rallied senators to pressure the FCC to act on stand-alone broadband, which the agency did, she said. “It certainly doesn’t solve all our problems and there’s some implementation issues coming out of that that we’re dealing with,” she said of the FCC USF overhaul, citing her push at an oversight hearing last month to get Chairman Tom Wheeler to share more information with small rate of return companies.
States are preparing low-income phone programs for federal changes to Lifeline, as the FCC Dec. 1 implementation deadline nears. With several Lifeline rules taking effect Dec. 2, under an FCC schedule (see 1610030040), NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay predicted some states will support a USTelecom petition to give some states more time. The Kentucky Public Service Commission plans to issue soon an order about how the changes affect its program, the Minnesota PUC released an order last week, and commissions in California and the District of Columbia are collecting comments. States have sued the FCC over the order, which added broadband internet access service (BIAS) as a supported service in the program.