The National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) raised red flags about a request from wireless reseller TracFone that the FCC potentially lighten the regulatory load placed on it if it’s designated as the first wireless reseller with eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) status under the USF lifeline program. Public safety sources said Tues. while TracFone is relatively small compared to a few of its peers, the issues raised aren’t, especially if other resellers also apply for ETC status.
In response to a federal court remand, the FCC voted Fri. to seek comment on how to craft new rules for distributing universal service support to Qwest and other “non-rural” carriers. Non-rural carriers tend to be bigger carriers with more urban than rural customers. The rules would guide the FCC in deciding how much support they should get when serving high-cost areas.
FCC Chmn. Martin made it clear he still backs a numbers-based approach to reforming the way companies contribute to the Universal Service Fund (USF), despite concerns about that method’s effect on low-volume telephone users. User groups have said a phone number- based approach would hike USF fees carriers pass on to customers.
Plans for a draft House telecom bill markup are on hold until next year, lawmakers decided late Thurs. afternoon, when they couldn’t resolve differences. “We'll have a markup when we're ready to have a markup,” a panel spokesman said. David Hickey, telecom aide to Rep. Stearns (R-Fla.), said at a conference sponsored by the Practising Law Institute (PLI): “We want to get it done and we were debating a markup.”
A plan to reform the Universal Service Fund (USF) with more state control and a cap on growth got Sen. Sununu’s (R-N.H.) conditional backing at a Wed. forum sponsored by the Progress & Freedom Foundation (PFF), which also proposed the reform package. As it stands, the USF program “significantly distorts the marketplace, undermines innovation and limits services to customers,” Sununu said. PFF’s plan correctly aims to limit growth and increase efficiency, he said: “We've got too many programs that are on auto-pilot.”
Changing video habits could mean new markets for Fixed Satellite Services operators, and SES Global said it’s angling to go after them while competitors Intelsat and PanAmSat focus on combining. “Our peer group is preoccupied with merging and there’s a window of opportunity of at least three to five years to go after growth… under circumstances where there will be less competition,” said SES Global CFO Mark Rigolle at the UBS media conference Mon. And the evolving video market could offer SES just that opportunity, Rigolle said.
The satellite industry Tues. urged the FCC to reform the Universal Service Fund to promote broadband deployment in rural America, citing the President’s 2007 broadband goal and satellite broadband as an option. Chiming in on USF remedies in ex parte meetings at the Commission, Satellite Industry Assn. (SIA) officials called for a “technologically neutral” fix to the USF, which they called “complicated to administer” and “ill- suited to a world of convergence.”
Were the FCC to base the universal service contribution system on telephone numbers, elderly and low- income people would suffer financially, a coalition of public interest groups said Thurs. Emphasizing FCC Chmn. Martin’s support for a numbers-based plan, members of the Keep Universal Service Fund Fair Coalition said at a news conference the plan would hike phone charges paid by “the most vulnerable of Americans.” The current revenue-based collection plan only charges when long distance calls are made, but the numbers-based plan would charge a fixed $1 or $2 a month, said Linda Sherry, Consumer Action dir.- national priorities: “One of the most alarming aspects of the numbers-based proposal is that no one has yet produced an estimate of the effect of the change on low-income consumers… It does not make sense for the FCC or Congress to change the collection of USF funding without first taking a long, hard look at who would pay the piper for the so-called ’simplicity’ of a numbers-based plan.” The coalition released a report it said offers “the first public estimate of the number of vulnerable consumers… and the extra dollars they would be forced to pay” whether directly through higher USF costs or indirectly through higher phone rates. According to the report, about 16 million households, mostly low-income or elderly individuals, that generally make no long distance calls, would pay up to $383 million more “under the Martin scheme.” Another group of 27 million low-volume users would pay up to $324 million more, the report said. The FCC is considering several ways to reform the contributions system, which now collects from carriers about 10% of revenue that long distance calls generate. Carriers pass the costs on to consumers. The coalition offered a “compromise” plan in which the current revenue- based system would continue but with VoIP revenue added. The plan would cap contributions at 12-15% of interstate revenue. If that didn’t collect enough money to support the USF program, a small numbers-based contribution -- “cents rather than dollars” -- would take effect as a “fall back,” Sherry said. The FCC now uses a “pay as you use it” system and shouldn’t move to a numbers-based “pay as you don’t use it” plan, Sherry said. FCC officials didn’t comment on the groups’ analysis because a contributions reform plan hasn’t been proposed yet.
Universal service fund (USF) support would be used for broadband deployment, under a discussion draft released Thurs. of a bill by Reps. Terry (R-Neb.) and Boucher (D-Va.). The bill would expand the USF base by requiring payments into the fund by service providers that use telephone numbers or IP addresses or sell network connections. “To change USF, I believe that all who play must pay,” said Terry. He called the draft a vehicle for reform that would remedy “inequities that exist today.” Boucher said he’s seeking comments on the draft by Dec. 23 and plans to introduce a bill next year.
The Senate Wed. passed 94-5 the Science, Transportation, State & Commerce appropriations bill conference report, which contains $289.7 million for the FCC. The bill, which now heads to the President for signature, also extends the exemption from Anti-Deficiency Act rules for universal service fund (USF) programs. Rural groups welcomed passage of the bill, particularly a provision that prohibits the FCC from limiting USF support to only a primary line. The bill will give consumers access to telecommunications services at affordable rates, said OPASTCO Pres. John Rose.