Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., led a letter pressing Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to update broadband speed definitions. “To keep USDA’s broadband infrastructure programs in step with current needs, Congress has delegated to USDA the ability to update speed definitions within both the Broadband Loan Program and the Community Connect Program,” they told Vilsack in a letter dated Tuesday. “We therefore respectfully request that for future funding years you increase the Community Connect Program’s Minimum Broadband Service definition. Such a change will enable communities that are currently ineligible, but which nonetheless lack adequate service, to engage with [the Rural Utilities Service] and providers to improve their connectivity.” NTCA "hopes policymakers will join us in calling for updated broadband speed definitions not only in the context of USDA programs, but also for comparable speeds -- and sufficient funding to enable them -- through the high-cost USF program that is so important to sustain rural network investments and enable adoption and ongoing use of broadband by rural consumers," CEO Shirley Bloomfield said Wednesday. She said USDA programs and the USF "often work in concert, with USDA loans and grants helping to finance the construction of many rural networks, and USF helping to make the business case for such investments while keeping user rates affordable over time."
House lawmakers aren't ready to announce clear plans forward on FCC reauthorization legislation following the Senate Commerce Committee's unanimous approval of its bipartisan two-year FCC Reauthorization Act (S-2644) last week (see 1604270055). A senior House Republican told us no firm decisions are made nor a course set for House action, despite interest in reauthorizing the agency for the first time since 1990.
Expect telecom policy continuity with some wrinkles if Democrat Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, said New Street Research analysts in a Sunday note. A Clinton administration would resemble a "third Obama term" in communications policy, but the agenda could evolve as it did in President Barack Obama's second term, when the FCC carried out broadband reclassification under Title II of the Communications Act, said the analysts. They said the Obama administration's sensitivities eased some after facing a deep recession at the outset. "It is difficult to exaggerate the abyss Obama's economic advisers peered into during the 2008 transition and continuing well into 2010," creating much concern about the investment impact of decisions, they said. But the bigger factor, they said, was the change from FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to Tom Wheeler, who has been more activist, in line with Democratic preferences, on many issues beyond Title II, including municipal broadband, USF changes, set-top boxes, special access, privacy, the IP transition, inmate calling rates and general enforcement. New Street said political forces favor a new FCC chairman in the "Wheeler mold," including Wheeler's popularity with most Democrats and the strong primary challenge of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., which has pushed Clinton toward "a more activist approach." Few Clinton advisers are likely to argue in favor of Genachowski's approach over Wheeler's, though there is some unpredictability, since it's unknown whom Clinton would nominate as FCC chairman and which party will control the Senate confirmation process, they said. "Bottom Line: Early Continuity But Then Circumstances Start to Change Outcomes," New Street concluded. Regardless of "Clinton's choice, we do not see any Democratic Chair stepping away from the core Title II choice, unless a court totally overturns that 2015 decision. Of course, there are still a number of related decisions, such as how to evaluate different zero-rating approaches and how to respond to court decisions chipping away at FCC authority, that will give a new Chair a chance to put meaning to the decision, rather than reversing it wholesale. It’s also likely the first Clinton Chair will continue a number of other Wheeler initiatives, such as supporting municipal broadband efforts, opening up the set-top box market, reforming special access, and imposing a new privacy framework on ISPs." New Street had suggested the communications policy of GOP front-runner Donald Trump would fall within the GOP "Republican norm" (see 1603020020). Former FCC official Blair Levin consults with New Street on telecom policy notes.
Scores of rural telcos challenged FCC data that indicated competitors provide qualified broadband/voice service in certain census blocks, while some cable companies updated data on their rival offerings. Certain levels of unsubsidized competitive service in an area render the RLECs ineligible for high-cost support under the commission's new optional model-based rate-of-return USF mechanism (see 1603300065). In a filing in docket 10-90, TDS Telecommunications, a large rural telco, challenged Clearnetworx's Form 477 submission that indicates it serves 62 census blocks in the territory of TDS subsidiary Delta County Tele-Comm. "Clearnetworx's own coverage map and statements from its customer service representative ... reveals that they do not offer voice or broadband service in those census blocks. Given there are no other unsubsidized competitors offering the required service, these census blocks should be treated as unserved by an unsubsidized competitor" and thus eligible for model-based Connect America Fund support, TDS said. Some of the other RLECs submitted statements from competitors confirming they didn't provide qualified service in census blocks listed as served under the cost model. But updating its data, Time Warner Cable said it was providing qualified broadband service for the first time in about 9,564 census blocks. "Because these census blocks are 'served' by TWC, rate of return carriers should not be eligible to receive model-based support in those blocks," it said. Cox Communications said it identified an additional 1,048 census blocks with competitive coverage. Co-Mo Comm submitted a list of 847 census blocks where it was deploying fiber-based broadband service. The competitor said it "has reason to believe that some or all" of the census blocks are in rate-of-return study areas in the latest cost model, and should be removed from CAF eligibility. Thursday was the filing deadline for filing challenges or updates.
Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., warned witnesses “it’s somewhat troubling that quite a bit of money has been spent on this national goal [of broadband connectivity], and Indian tribal governments and communities still struggle to access Internet services.” He spoke during a late Wednesday hearing addressing a GAO report on telecom access on tribal lands (see 1604270065).
Barriers remain to high-speed Internet access among 21 tribes interviewed, including high poverty rates and high costs to connecting remote tribal villages, GAO said in congressional testimony Wednesday that grew out of a January report. The GAO said FCC USF subsidy programs and the grant programs of the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service "are interrelated," but the agencies "do not coordinate to develop joint outreach and training, which could result in inefficient use of federal resources and missed opportunities for resource leveraging." The FCC hasn't developed performance goals and measures for improving tribal broadband availability, said GAO, which suggested the commission "could establish baseline measures to track its progress by using, for example, the National Broadband Map," which has data on tribal Internet availability. "The FCC also lacks both reliable data on high-speed Internet access and performance goals and measures for high-speed Internet access by tribal institutions -- such as schools and libraries," the GAO said, saying the commission "has neither defined 'tribal' on its E-rate application nor set any performance goals for the program's impact on tribal institutions." Without such goals and measures, the FCC can't assess the impact of its efforts, it said. The FCC agreed with the recommendations, the GAO said.
The FCC issued the 224-page text of its Lifeline modernization order and commissioner statements Wednesday. The item was adopted 3-2 March 31 after an attempted bipartisan budget deal collapsed (see 1603310056). The order extends Lifeline low-income USF support to broadband service and updates program administration. It creates minimum service standards for broadband and mobile voice services while allowing "an exception in areas where fixed broadband providers do not meet the minimum standards." The FCC mandated a "five-and-one-half-year transition, during which we will gradually increase mobile voice and data requirements and gradually decrease voice support levels." It shifts responsibility for verifying consumer Lifeline eligibility from carriers to a national entity, creates a streamlined national Lifeline broadband provider designation process and requires participating providers to make Wi-Fi functionality available when providing devices for Lifeline use. The FCC established a $2.25 billion annual Lifeline budget that can be adjusted if spending reaches 90 percent of that level. Democratic commissioners issued their statements March 31 but the full statements of the dissenting Republicans weren't available until Wednesday's order. "I cannot support this Order," said Commissioner Ajit Pai in a 16-page statement. "It is not fiscally responsible. It does not clean up the waste, fraud, and abuse. And it consigns Lifeline consumers to second-class broadband services for the foreseeable future. On top of this, the Order does not comply with federal law." Pai said that the agency did "practically nothing" to fix Lifeline's "fiscal nightmare." He said the order didn't set a "meaningful," enforceable budget, doesn't target funding to households lacking broadband, doesn't curb excessive spending on urban tribal lands and doesn't address loopholes that invite carrier abuse, but does "cut state commissions out of the Lifeline designation process." He said Chairman Tom Wheeler worked to unwind a budget compromise between Pai and Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Mignon Clyburn. O'Rielly said the most disappointing aspect was that the budget deal was "attacked for all the wrong reasons." The compromise budget "would not have harmed the program or recipients" but instead would have allowed support to reach "all eligible households that lack sufficient broadband while staying within reasonable fiscal limits," he said, noting he would have backed a $2 billion cap. Instead, the order adopted a "phony" budget mechanism, he said.
The Senate Commerce Committee cleared the FCC Reauthorization Act (S-2644) by unanimous voice vote and the FCC Process Reform Act (S-421) by a partisan 13-11 vote Wednesday, as expected (see 1604260058). Senators agreed unanimously to 18 amendments in addition to the substitute amendment from Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., the bill author. The text now includes the Kari’s Law Act (S-2553) and the Spoofing Prevention Act (S-2558).
The FCC Wireline Bureau denied requests by scores of school districts for waivers of an invoice filing deadline under the E-rate USF program. "The rules allow billed entities and service providers to seek and automatically receive a one-time extension of the invoicing deadlines, provided that the extension request is made in advance of the initial invoicing deadline," said a bureau order listed in Tuesday's Daily Digest in docket 02-6. "None of the petitioners timely sought such an extension, and none present evidence that would justify waiving the requirement that invoice extension requests be filed before the invoicing deadline." Many petitioners cited "employee confusion, lack of understanding of the program rules, staff turnover, or no reason at all for not timely seeking an extension," it said, saying such reasons don't constitute "extraordinary circumstances."
An FCC draft order would address an application for review of a Wireline Bureau decision that denied a U.S. Cellular request for a waiver of a 2008 high-cost USF support filing deadline, said an agency spokesman Monday. He didn't say what action the draft order would take but noted the docket is 08-71. The FCC's list of items on circulation, which was updated Friday, indicated the draft order circulated among commissioners Tuesday. U.S. Cellular representatives didn't comment.