Frontier Communications urged the FCC to include interim voice support in a pending draft order on a Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction of broadband-oriented subsidies for areas served by price-cap incumbent telcos. Frontier and other ILECs say the support is needed to maintain voice service in extremely costly but currently unsubsidized remote areas that won't receive broadband/voice support through CAF II auction winners for some time. The FCC is tentatively scheduled to vote on a CAF II auction framework order at its May 25 meeting, which is expected to be followed by further proceedings to finalize the auction (see 1605050036). The cable industry's main trade group opposed the Frontier proposal.
The FCC said it received prohibited written presentations in the Lifeline USF proceeding in which the commission adopted an order overhauling the low-income subsidy program at its March 31 meeting (see 1603310056). The presentations in docket 11-42 were from the American Enterprise Institute, National Association of Counties and six individuals, said a public notice, saying presentations to decision-makers are generally not allowed from the day after release of the meeting's Sunshine agenda until the text of the item is issued (see 1604270028), which in this case was from March 25 until April 27. The presentations "will be associated with, but not made part of the record," said the PN in Tuesday's Daily Digest.
Nex-Tech Wireless, a small wireless carrier in rural Kansas, asked the FCC to cut it a break after it made a mistake on a form carriers use to report revenue subject to the USF. “For the first time since it began filing Form 499, NTW made a clerical error on its Form 499-Q due February 1, 2016, resulting in a large overstatement of its projected interstate revenues for the second quarter of 2016,” NTW said. NTW said it didn't learn of the error until it received an invoice April 22. As a result, the company missed the 45-day deadline for revising the filing, it said. “As a result, the charges on its April 22 invoice were nearly three times what they should have been,” NTW said. Dollar figures were redacted in the public version of the FCC filing. NTW asked for a waiver of the 45-day deadline and a break on interest and penalties as a result of the mistake.
Alaska telcos are battling over a plan to give broadband-oriented USF support to rural telcos and wireless competitors in the state. The Alaska Telephone Association (ATA) and General Communications (GCI) say their Alaska Plan is a consensus proposal to provide wireline and mobile broadband to consumers in remote areas of the state without increasing high-cost support. ATA disagrees with Alaska Communications that the "competitive eligible telecom carrier (CETC) portion of the Alaska Plan should be disapproved, delayed, or subject to ACS's proposed conditions," it said in a filing Monday in docket 10-90. GCI last week responded to Alaska Communications' "repetitive and unprincipled attempts" to "scuttle the Alaska Plan, as it uniquely continues to collect the same amount of high-cost support as it did in 2011, despite the absence of any performance commitments."
The FCC's E-rate budget will be $3.94 billion for funding year 2016 (beginning July 1), a 1 percent increase from the $3.9 billion budget in the current funding year, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Friday in docket 02-6. The E-rate program, which gives schools and libraries telecom discounts, is subject to annual inflation adjustments. Meanwhile, consultant Billy Jack Gregg projected the contribution factor for carriers paying into the overall USF program would drop from 17.9 percent to 17.6 percent of interstate and international end-user revenue, if the industry revenue base stays constant. The decline would occur because USF demand is projected to fall in the quarter due to out-of-period adjustments, Gregg said in an email May 2. But if revenue falls -- and it has been trending down over the years -- the contribution factor could be higher than 17.6 percent, he said, noting the Universal Service Administrative Co. will issue its revenue projections at the end of May.
Respect state authority over fixed interconnected VoIP services, said the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, urging a court to reject a magistrate judge’s recommendation to hear a complaint by Charter Communications. In objections filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Minnesota, the state commission asked the court to modify the magistrate report, reject the recommendation and grant the PUC’s motion to dismiss the Charter complaint. Alternatively, the court should vacate reference of the motion and rehear it anew, it said.
The FCC would put over $2 billion in broadband-oriented rural subsidies up for grabs over the next decade in a reverse auction of Connect America Fund (CAF) support, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Wednesday. "We hope the power of competitive bidding will spark robust broadband deployment and service offerings across rural America in the most cost-efficient way possible," he said in a blog post on a draft CAF Phase II auction order and other items on the tentative agenda for the commission's May 25 meeting (see 1605040066).
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.