The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission indefinitely delayed considering an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANOPR) on amending state USF rules. The PUC was scheduled to hear the item in docket L-2023-3040646 at its July 13 meeting but postponed it to Aug. 3 (see 2307130020). But the ANOPR isn't on an agenda released Wednesday. It’s unclear when the item will return. The Pennsylvania PUC doesn’t speculate about agenda items, a spokesperson said.
Nebraska Public Service Commission staff recommend changes to state USF reverse auctions to “better incentive participation,” said Telecom Director Cullen Robbins at a partially virtual PSC hearing Wednesday (docket NUSF-131). The commission had a sound framework for conducting the first reverse auction in August 2022, said Robbins. But it makes sense to raise starting reserve prices next time, he said. “Afterall, it is a reverse auction [and] the main goal of the reserve price is to incentivize bidding -- ideally, by multiple parties -- so that the price can be lowered in successive rounds.” Staff recommends setting the reserve price two to three times higher than the model price, Robbins said. Also, the commission should reconfigure the units up for bid, said Robbins. “Since the bidding units in the last auction were census block groups, sometimes the blocks that made up the group were scattered and not contiguous,” which may have ballooned possible project costs, he said. Staff recommends allowing participation by the originally assigned price-cap carriers that returned USF funding or were withheld support, said Robbins: They might want to bid since they could get more money than they would have under the previous USF distribution mechanism, especially with the proposed higher reserve prices and smaller bidding units. Such companies are also likely to have the closest facilities and may be able to provide service for the least cost, he said. Also, staff recommends all participants have eligible telecom carrier designations to participate, which would allow carrier of last resort obligations and ongoing support to be transferred to the winning bidders, said Robbins: Bidders should commit to taking those obligations. Commissioner Tim Schram (R) suggested the Nebraska PSC at least ask applicants to say whether they will connect all the way to a customer’s location, such as in a situation where the customer has a half-mile-long driveway. Also, Schram wants to make sure winning bidders will connect customers to the state’s nearly complete next-generation 911 network. “We've spent millions ... to modernize that network and I just want to make sure that consumers have the ability to connect to it." Fixed wireless can participate if they can meet the program’s requirements for 100 Mbps symmetrical broadband, Robbins answered Commissioner Kevin Stocker (R). “I believe they can meet the speed requirements according to what I’ve seen them claim in the past.”
The Wyoming Public Service Commission won't vote at Thursday’s meeting on a staff proposal to grant a Dish Wireless application for eligible telecom carrier designation. The application in docket 60061-6-RA-23 was on the consent agenda, but Commissioner Chris Petrie said he has questions for Dish and asked to table the item until the Aug. 8 meeting at 1:30 p.m. MDT. Dish seeks “limited designation to provide Lifeline service to qualifying Wyoming consumers, including those customers residing on federally recognized Tribal lands,” said a July 24 staff memo. The company doesn’t seek access to USF high-cost support. The Utah PSC last month set a Nov. 28 hearing on a similar Dish petition (see 2307240029).
House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, declared their “strong opposition” Monday to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s “Learning Without Limits” proposal to allow E-rate program money to pay for Wi-Fi on school buses and for hot spots (see 2306260029). The GOP leaders urged Rosenworcel and the other three FCC commissioners to “get E-rate’s house in order before seeking new ways to spend consumers’ hard-earned money,” citing “deep-seated problems” with the program they believe is “full of waste, fraud, and abuse.” Cruz asked the GAO in May to investigate the FCC's administration of USF programs (see 2305110066). “Not only does” Rosenworcel’s proposal “violate federal law, but it would also duplicate programs across the federal government, directly contradicting FCC commissioners’ repeated commitments to streamlining federal broadband funding,” Cruz and Rodgers said in letters to the FCC chairwoman and Commissioners Brendan Carr, Nathan Simington and Geoffrey Starks. The lawmakers argued Communications Act Section 254 confines the FCC’s E-rate authority “to classrooms and libraries” and doesn’t extend to “off-campus use of eligible” services. “Expanding E-Rate to fund equipment like Wi-Fi hotspots would break with the statute and longstanding precedent” that USF “dollars, which fund the E-Rate program, may only be used to fund services and not consumer devices,” Cruz and Rodgers said. Attempting to transform E-rate “into a consumer broadband subsidy program” means the FCC “would duplicate other taxpayer-funded programs,” including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act-mandated $14.2 billion affordable connectivity program. E-rate “is not directly funded by Congress and lacks congressionally mandated safeguards,” the Republicans said: There’s also “no telling how much USF fees could increase to pay for” such a “dramatic” expansion of E-rate. They asked all four commissioners to respond by Aug. 14. The FCC didn’t comment.
Consumers' Research asked the U.S. Supreme Court to extend the deadline to file its cert petition challenging a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the FCC's USF 2021 Q4 contribution factor (see 2305300009). The group asked in an application posted Friday that the court extend the Aug. 28 deadline by 60 days, to Oct. 27, to file its petition. The group noted the 5th Circuit's decision to grant rehearing for its challenge of a separate contribution factor, saying it "signals that it may soon split from the Sixth Circuit on these important nondelegation matters" (see 2306290074).
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission voted 2-1 to increase the state USF’s per-connection surcharge, at a livestreamed meeting Thursday. The flat fee will increase to $2.02 monthly per connection in September, from $1.85, under the commission’s second interim order in case OSF2022-000045. Before voting no, Commissioner Bob Anthony noted the draft order was distributed late afternoon Wednesday. In a written dissent, the Republican noted Oklahoma USF (OUSF) collected about $7 million two decades ago, yet Thursday’s order says the fund requires $110 million in fiscal year 2023. “That’s more than 15 times higher than 20 years ago, and the statute still provides no cap.” The government program is opaque, complained Anthony. “Basic transparency and disclosure about this program should enable the public to know: Where do these OUSF monies actually go? To network improvements, infrastructure buildout, and modernization? Or to better salaries, higher profits and larger dividends for a few dozen independent telephone companies and/or their owners?” At the commission’s July 11 meeting, OUSF Administrator Mark Argenbright said the increased surcharge should put the commission on track to eliminating a current USF deficit in September 2024. Argenbright disagreed with CTIA, which said the increasing surcharge shows Oklahoma’s connections-based contribution method isn’t working (see 2307110078).
The FCC should reclassify as direct full-time equivalents the Wireline Bureau indirect FTEs who work on non-high cost USF programs, said NAB in calls last week with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Nathan Simington and Brendan Carr, said an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 22-301. Doing so “is both administrable and better reflects the work performed and the benefits provided to fee payors by the Commission’s activities,” said the filing. The result “would be consistent with the FCC’s treatment of many other FTE categories and would certainly be more accurate than one which requires broadcasters to pay significantly more in regulatory fees,” NAB said. The filing also praised the FCC’s proposal to shift the way it calculates how FTEs are assigned to bureaus (see 2305110064), and urged the agency to do regular reassessments of how FTEs are allocated. A draft regulatory fee order has been circulated to 10th-floor offices, according to the agency’s circulation webpage.
The FCC adopted an order establishing an enhanced alternative connect America cost model (ACAM) program that provides USF high-cost support for carriers that deploy services of at least 100/20 Mbps to all unserved locations served by the program. "To meet the needs of consumers today and into the future, we are optimizing the commission’s programs to bring higher speeds and greater bandwidth to consumers, particularly those living in hard-to-reach areas," said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a Monday news release. Rosenworcel circulated the proposal in June (see 2306160042). Also adopted was a notice of inquiry and NPRM that would seek comment on additional revisions to the legacy rate-of-return system.
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska got wide industry support for making permanent its recently adopted emergency regulations for Alaska USF. Making them permanent would extend the AUSF sunset through June 30, 2026. The RCA received supportive comments in docket R-21-001 this week from Alaska Communications, Alaska Telecom Association (ATA), Alaska Remote Carriers Coalition, GCI, Ketchikan Public Utilities (KPU) and Matanuska Telecom Association. ATA said the RCA's actions to continue AUSF “are crucial in ensuring the provision of essential telecommunications services to rural areas in Alaska.” The RCA should adopt a change proposed by the Alaska Universal Service Administrative Company (AUSAC), some industry groups said. AUSAC urged the RCA July 13 to reinstate a reporting and remittance exception for de minimis carriers, which pay up to $100 annually. "Without the de minimis exception, additional time will be spent on processing paper reports and remittances from de minimis carriers as electronic payments are cost prohibitive for a carrier to remit $8 or less,” the administrator said. “AUSAC has had past experiences with carriers, who were unaware of the de minimis exception, taping coins to mailed remittance reports." KPU supported that proposed change unless it "would create unnecessary delay in adoption or otherwise risk disapproval by the Department of Law.”
AUSTIN -- New NARUC Telecom Committee Chair Tim Schram praised NTIA efforts making broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) allocations, in a Wednesday interview. Also, Schram and another Republican committee member, South Dakota Commissioner Chris Nelson, told us they’re glad the FCC may soon finally have all five seats filled.