CHICAGO - Network neutrality rules could slow or “halt” progress toward a fully connected world, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg said in a keynote speech Wednesday at Supercomm. “While this future is imminent, it is not inevitable, and the decisions we make today - as an industry and as a country - will determine whether the benefits of these transformational networks will be felt sooner or much, much later.”
U.S. Cellular Chairman Ted Carlson and other company officials met with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Commissioner Michael Copps, and other FCC officials, to discuss USF funding for wireless broadband, allowing automatic roaming for data services and “harms” caused by handset exclusivity agreements, the company said in an ex parte filing at the FCC.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- The FCC plans to seek more information on the Universal Service Fund (USF) as part of its development of a national broadband plan, said Jennifer McKee, acting chief of the FCC Wireline Bureau’s telecommunication access policy division. On a panel Tuesday at the CompTel show, she said she expects an FCC public notice on how USF fits into the plan to surface in “the next couple of weeks.”
The FCC tentatively concluded that incumbent local exchange carriers should get more universal service support under the local switching support (LSS) mechanism if they lose a significant number of access line customers. The conclusion came in a rulemaking notice responding to a petition by the Coalition for Equity in Switching Support. It protested an FCC rule that reduces a small incumbent carrier’s LSS support when its number of access lines climbs above a specified threshold but doesn’t increase support if the count falls below the threshold (CD Sept 3 p7). Republican commissioners supported the rulemaking but distanced themselves from the tentative conclusion.
Judges seemed skeptical of Rural Cellular Association arguments that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit should throw out the FCC’s interim cap on universal service payments to competitive eligible telecommunications carriers (CETCs), imposed in May 2008. RCA attorney David LaFuria told judges during oral argument Monday that the commission had imposed the cap without a factual or logical basis, without showing an emergency requiring bold action.
Work on comprehensive emergency communications legislation will come next year when the FCC finishes its broadband plan and perhaps takes up revamping the Universal Service Fund, House aides said at an E-911 Institute meeting Thursday. The need for a nationwide strategy and funding for next-generation E-911 services could be taken up in a USF bill or some other broadband-related vehicle, aides said. Some of this year’s broadband stimulus awards could go to public-safety projects, as called for in the Recovery Act, but much more money will be needed to fulfill longstanding plans for a nationwide interoperable network, people at the conference said.
It’s important to recognize how broadband, universal service, inter-carrier compensation reform, special access reform and wireless investigation are all interrelated, said consultant Andy Regitsky during a webinar Wednesday. He said there’s a growing consensus on several inter-carrier compensation issues at the commission, including moving intrastate access rates to interstate rate levels, addressing phantom traffic and traffic stimulation, implementing an alternative cost mechanism in certain circumstances and eliminating the identical cost rule. That offers eligible competitive local exchange carriers the same amount of universal service support as incumbent LECs, he said. He mentioned a sample ICC and universal service reform proposal by the FCC last year, which would decrease the cost of universal service and increase subscriber line charge. As a result of that proposal, there would also be a single terminating rate for interstate and intrastate access and reciprocal compensation, he said. Winners of ICC and universal service reform could be ILECs if they're permitted to recover all revenue lost, and VoIP providers if there aren’t access charges, Regitsky said. Large companies that could more easily shift common costs to other products could benefit too if an additional cost standard is used, he said, joking that telecom lawyers are certainly among the potential beneficiaries. Potential losers could be state commissions if they lose final say over rates and rural providers unless lost access revenue is recovered, he said. CLECs seeking USF support will be impacted too, Regitsky said. Meanwhile, until now, the FCC has failed to take any action on special access, he said. There’s pressure from wireless providers in the broadband proceeding to reduce special access rates for the middle mile between the retail Internet provider in a rural area and its backbone network in a lower-cost urban area, he said.
The FCC’s National Broadband Plan probably will conclude that Americans are getting less broadband than they pay for, judging from hours of presentations Tuesday at the commission’s monthly meeting. Another likely conclusion is that universal broadband won’t come cheap: The cost could soar to $350 billion, based on commission estimates.
The Wireline Bureau wants comment on a petition by the Ad Hoc Coalition of International Telecommunications Companies (CD Sept 9 p13) asking the agency to rule that the Universal Service Administrative Co. can’t “indirectly” impose universal service fund (USF) fees on international-only long-distance providers. Ad Hoc also asked the FCC to rule that it lacks jurisdiction to impose USF obligations on those from outside the U.S. Comments are due Oct. 28, replies Nov. 12.
AT&T’s July petition seeking an immediate FCC revamp of universal service fund contribution (USF) formulas will be treated as an ex parte filing in the FCC’s open rulemaking on USF and intercarrier compensation reform, the Wireline Bureau said Monday. AT&T urged the FCC to replace its current system based on interstate revenue with one based on phone number count (CD July 31 p5).