The Wyoming Public Utilities commission is to consider at its meeting Tuesday a Qwest filing for authority to enter into an agreement with QuantumShift Communications on unbundled network elements, ancillary services and resale interconnection (Docket 70000-1404-TK-08 and 70054-7-TK-08). The commission also is to decide on a TCT West filing for authority to make an interconnection agreement with Bresnan Broadband (Docket 70114-23-TK-08 and 70014-24- TK-08), a Qwest filing for continued waivers of some requirements of telecom service quality rules and request for confidential treatment (Docket 70000-1399-TA-08), and an Embarq tariff filing for authority to increase the federal Universal Service Fund debit applied to local service access line charges and to raise associated rates for consumer and business bundles (Docket 70009-316-TT-08).
Carrier contributions to the Universal Service Fund will decline 16.7 percent in Q1 2009, due mostly to falling high- cost support requirements, the FCC said on Monday. Next quarter, carriers must contribute 9.5 percent of their long distance revenue to USF. That’s 1.9 percentage points less than Q4, and 0.7 less than Q1 last year. To set the carrier “contribution factor,” the agency divides projected carrier revenue by expected USF subsidies for a given quarter. Of an estimated $1.84 billion in Q1 subsidies, about $1.06 billion is for the rural high-cost program, $525.74 million for the E-rate program, $204.89 million for low-income support and $49.49 million for the rural health-care program. Support requirements for the high-cost program dropped most, falling $120 million from Q4. The interim cap on the competitive eligible telecom carrier (CETC) portion of the high-cost fund is partially responsible for the drop, said Curt Stamp, president of the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Association. An industry official estimated that the CETC cap reduced demand on the high-cost fund by about $64 million. The five-month CETC cap took effect in August, but apparently took an extra quarter to kick in, Stamp said. The contribution factor decline could relieve some of the short-term emergency behind USF reform efforts, but ITTA hopes the FCC and Congress won’t lose focus, he said.
Incorrect payments continue in the universal service schools and libraries E-rate program and low income fund, the FCC’s inspector general said Friday. These are payments that shouldn’t be made or are for the wrong amount. The E-rate program had a rate of payment errors of 13.9 percent in audits just completed, up from 12.9 percent in 2007, the IG said. The incorrect payments totaled $232.7 million, compared to $210 million in 2007. The problem puts the program “at risk,” according to Office of Management and Budget guidelines that set 2.5 percent as the highest acceptable rate.
Regional wireless carriers and the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition urged the FCC to reconsider and clarify several conditions that the agency imposed on the Verizon Wireless-Alltel merger. The requests came in six reconsideration petitions last week. In a joint petition, MetroPCS and nTelos asked the FCC to extend the time that Verizon must honor Alltel’s roaming agreements to seven years from four to give carriers a chance to roll out Long Term Evolution wireless technology. LTE will allow CDMA carriers to roam on networks that aren’t compatible now, they said. The carriers also asked the FCC to require Verizon to provide automatic data roaming for seven years. In another joint petition, U.S. Cellular and three other wireless carriers asked the FCC to require Verizon to reduce its universal service support in equal amounts annually over five years, until it’s gone or the FCC defines a new USF mechanism. Separately, Leap Wireless asked the commission to clarify that roaming partners can choose to apply their existing roaming agreements with Alltel or Verizon in full, not just the rates. And the FCC should confirm that the roaming agreement chosen will apply to the future service areas and spectrum bands of each carrier, Leap said. Public Service Communications urged the commission to strengthen roaming conditions, temporarily ban handset exclusivity arrangements and require Verizon to sell additional Alltel cellular properties, “where overlapped by Verizon cellular operations and/or where the merger would result in an excessive concentration of spectrum.” The Public Interest Spectrum Coalition asked the FCC to reconsider including broadband radio service spectrum (BRS) in its spectrum screen and to impose a condition requiring an open network allowing customers to access legal content, attach devices and run applications of their choice. The coalition previously made its BRS argument in a reconsideration petition on the Sprint Nextel and Clearwire partnership (CD Dec 10 p8). A sixth petition, by the Rural Telecommunications Group, was filed earlier last week (CD Dec 11 p8).
The FCC posted on its Web site how much universal service high-cost fund support competitive eligible telecom carriers will get while the agency’s interim USF cap applies. The support amounts reflect USF money ETCs received in March. “Competitive ETCs should confirm their March 2008 high-cost support amount information with [the Universal Service Administrative Co.] and file any corrections” by Dec. 31, the FCC said. USAC won’t accept changes after that date, unless the CETC is granted a waiver by the FCC, the commission said.
Awkward timing could stop FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s free wireless broadband proposal from getting votes at the agency’s Dec. 18 public meeting, a commission official said Wednesday. Some commission officials believe it would be unwise to make AWS-3 auction rules this month, given the current economic crisis, a new FCC next year and a fast- approaching DTV transition, the official said. Concerns also exist regarding how effectively the free Internet plan can spur rural and low-income broadband deployment.
Special access rate reform will likely be “a first-year priority” for the next FCC, said telecom lawyer Andrew Lipman at a UBS media and telecom conference Monday. A recent GAO report said special access rates were “exploding,” and Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein “feel very strongly” about lowering rates, Lipman said. “This is a big issue not only for the Democrats but for the big business users and for the large competitors.” The Universal Service Fund and intercarrier competition will probably also get attention, but not until the second half of next year, Lipman said. The FCC “might take up a few bite-size issues like phantom traffic and traffic pumping,” he said. The FCC will look at tightening fiscal control over USF, and better targeting USF support to broadband and low-income urban areas, he said.
FCC officials voiced frustration over new delays in the commission’s overhauls of the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation. At PLI’s annual telecom conference Thursday, Wireline Bureau Chief Dana Shaffer, Commissioner Robert McDowell and Scott Deutchman, an aide to Commissioner Michael Copps, wouldn’t predict when the FCC would finally act. McDowell and Deutchman said they were disappointed no vote would happen at the Dec. 18 FCC meeting. Meanwhile, Hill officials said some in Congress are looking to move on a USF revamp, but the prospects are unclear.
The FCC will vote Dec. 18 on an order to establish a free wireless Internet service using AWS-3 spectrum, Chairman Kevin Martin said in a press briefing Wednesday. The plan’s technical specifics are similar to the plan the agency considered in May, but includes revisions desired by another commissioner, Martin said. Martin has gotten positive feedback from some commissioner offices and is “hopeful” he'll get three votes, he said.
The Arizona Corporation Commission wants more time to file reply comments on the FCC’s pending overhaul for the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation, the ACC said Monday. The Arizona commission backed a motion filed by the National Association of State Utility Advocates (CD Dec 1 p2), asking to extend the reply deadline three weeks to Christmas Eve. “The Arizona Commission is a relatively small agency and was unable to file initial comments because of the abbreviated comment cycle established by the FCC and the Thanksgiving holiday.” If the FCC thinks a three-week extension is too long, the agency should extend the deadline two weeks to Dec. 17, the state commission said. Replies are currently due Wednesday, an already problematically tight deadline because it’s less than three weeks before the FCC’s Dec. 18 meeting. A Dec. 17 or Dec. 24 reply deadline would effectively prevent the FCC from tackling USF or intercarrier compensation at its meeting.