CTC Telecom is an eligible telecommunications carrier entitled to federal funds to expand its wireless network in four Idaho counties, the state utility commission said on Thursday. ETC designation positions the wireless carrier, operating as Snake River PCS, to receive about $171,300 yearly from the federal Universal Service Fund. The company has ETC status in New Meadows, Council, Indian Valley, Cambridge, Garden Valley, Horseshoe Bend, Idaho City and Lowman. But commissioners denied CTC’s request to extend that to the Midvale exchange, because the company “did not demonstrate to the commission that it would serve the entire exchange,” the regulator said. CTC denied targeting low-cost areas in the exchange. “However, CTC’s decision to disaggregate the Midvale service area requires the commission to adhere to its previous rulings granting ETC status only in those areas where an entire service area is included in the carrier’s expansion plans,” the commission said. ETC status for Snake River also means its customers who meet state Health and Welfare Department guidelines will be eligible for Lifeline assistance of $13.50 a month, the commission said.
Residents of northern Mississippi are being surveyed on cellphone access, to help persuade carriers to improve service in that part of the state. Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, who represents the region, began a Zap the Gap campaign to pinpoint places where wireless access doesn’t match demand, he said. He isn’t trying to impugn the performance of carriers, he told us. “We just need more input. With the kind of Universal Service Fund money that the companies are getting, you should be able to get a good cell phone signal and not have dropped calls anywhere in Mississippi. The question is, why isn’t service better? Until now we've had to rely totally on the companies to monitor access and service quality, and they're not always right. But consumers know where the problems are, and we hope that by collecting that information and informing the companies we can get them to fix the situation.” He said carriers providing cellphone service in Mississippi have received more than $512 million since 2004 in federal USF payments. Presley said the money is supposed to go toward increasing rural deployment of cellphone services. “Yet we still have many places in the state, especially rural areas of North Mississippi, that don’t have service,” he said. “In today’s world, having reliable, dependable cellphone coverage is an important factor in the safety and quality of life.” The survey is at www.psc.state.ms.us/commissioners/northern/zapthegap.html. Presley said he’s talking up the survey in personal appearances and may produce public service announcements about it.
At an Aug. 17 meeting, Utah’s Public Service Commission will consider a petition by All West Communications for a rate increase and an increase in state Universal Service Fund payments. If granted, the combination would erase a deficit of nearly $766,000, the company said. The telco wants to raise its basic residential service rate from $13.50 to $16.50 per month, and its basic business rate from $23 to $26 per month. Those increases would neutralize $216,000 of the deficit, it said. The remainder would be addressed by approving an additional $549,390 in annual state USF funds for the company, All West said.
The FCC’s work with unlikely partners during the DTV transition helped prepare it for outreach on broadband, Commissioner Michael Copps said in an interview Friday with Communications Daily. The national broadband plan is “probably the greatest challenge we've been given in the history of the FCC,” he said. Reflecting on his five-month tenure as acting chairman, Copps told us that he’s “optimistic” morale at the commission has been on the mend since January, under his leadership and that of Chairman Julius Genachowski, who took over in late June. With the commission about to get back to its full complement of five members, Copps said, he wants action on several wireless and media items.
Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel executives visited the FCC together to discuss a universal-service condition imposed in commission orders approving the companies’ recent deals with Alltel and Clearwire. In a meeting with FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick and the Wireline Competition Bureau, the carriers discussed carrying out a requirement to phase out receipt of high-cost universal service support formerly received by AllTel and Clearwire, and how the condition interacts with the USF interim cap, said a Sprint ex parte.
A proposed government initiative to widely deploy HD voice technology would be a boon to device manufacturers, said analysts and industry executives in interviews. But while Web-based VoIP providers and big network operators are eying HD voice, some smaller service providers doubt the unproven technology is worth the effort. And Washington may have other priorities.
The FCC’s inspector general is investigating the Universal Service Fund low-income program and plans to submit a report to the commission and Congress, acting Inspector General David Hunt said Tuesday. In a letter to various committee chairmen and ranking members in the House and Senate, he said his office has withdrawn the previous IG’s December finding that all payments by the program were incorrect, because it may not provide a “meaningful and accurate” picture.
The FCC should deny AT&T’s call for a Universal Service Fund contribution revamp, said the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association. AT&T filed a petition this month seeking “immediate commission action” on a plan from the carrier and Verizon for a pure numbers-based mechanism, in light of this quarter’s all-time high 12.9 percent contribution factor (CD July 14 p5). In an ex parte notice Tuesday, the NTCA accused AT&T of “attempting to create a false emergency in an effort to apparently spur premature FCC action so that AT&T may reduce or eliminate its USF contribution obligations prospectively through future regulatory arbitrage.” The NTCA said a 12.9 percent contribution factor is nothing to complain about, because it produces a phone bill that’s “a tiny fraction of a consumer’s monthly budget.” Using phone numbers for contribution ignores the movement to broadband, it said. “The AT&T proposal is backwards-looking, technology-biased, and will dramatically shift the burden of paying for universal service onto incumbent and competitive local exchange carriers and wireless carriers … while relieving interexchange, broadband and other types of providers of the obligation of paying for universal service.” The FCC should keep its current revenue-based contribution mechanism and change it slightly to take new technologies into account, the NTCA said. The FCC could achieve widespread broadband deployment in five to 10 years if it added broadband as a supported USF service and expanded the contribution base to all broadband and special-access transport providers, it said.
The interim cap on the Universal Service Fund has stunted wireless growth in North Carolina, Virginia and other states, said the Rural Cellular Association. In a letter last week to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowksi, RCA criticized a June 19 letter by the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates that said the cap has caused little harm. “NASUCA is more concerned about how much consumers pay into the fund rather than ensuring that rural consumers receive the benefits that the fund was intended to deliver,” the rural group said. “We think the latter, especially in the current economy, should be of paramount importance to the Commission and that the interim cap is frustrating Congressional objectives set forth in Section 254 of the Act.” In North Carolina, for example, the cap is cutting $23 million in USF subsidies annually, the rural association said. “As a result, wireless carriers serving the state are being forced to cancel or delay plans for new cell site construction.” The association played down the cost to consumers of removing the cap, saying the increase to USF fees on phone bills would be “pennies to low volume users … and negligible to high volume users.” The FCC has no authority to say what contribution factor is too high, it said. “Congress has never stated what level of contribution factor is unacceptable, and it is the province of Congress, not the FCC, to make such a determination.”
Verizon Wireless said it would support legislation or an FCC rule mandating roaming agreements under certain conditions for a minimum of two years. The commitment came in a letter it sent to House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., late Wednesday. Waxman didn’t have a response to the letter, a spokeswoman said Thursday. Verizon said its offer came after a “dialogue” with committee staff on in-market roaming arrangements. Waxman wants carriers to expand roaming, he’s made clear at hearings and in past legislation.