The FCC should carefully consider broadcaster concerns as the commission moves forward with an order requiring public political files to be posted online, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said Wednesday. Speaking at a Catholic University conference, Clyburn outlined an agenda for the rest of the year including work on spectrum, USF reform and accessibility. Clyburn and a later wireless industry panel urged rules to spur competition in the mobile market.
The FCC’s further notice of proposed rulemaking on USF contribution reform, on deck for the April 27 commissioners’ meeting, could pose “more questions than answers,” Stifel Nicolaus analyst Christopher King said in a report Monday. Because of a lack of industry consensus on a new contribution mechanism, “our sense is the FCC plans to build a more complete record on various proposals in hopes of fostering a solution, which doesn’t appear likely before year end at the earliest,” King said.
The FCC sought comment on a request by the Texas Health Information Network Collaborative (TxHINC) for a 120-day extension of the June 30 USF rural healthcare pilot program funding commitment deadline for choosing vendors and requesting commitment letters from the Universal Service Administrative Co., said a Wireline Bureau public notice (http://xrl.us/bm263g). TxHINC wants its deadline extended to Oct. 30, “due to circumstances unique to the state of Texas” that have led to delays, the notice said. Comments are due May 7 in docket 02-60, replies May 21.
FCC names William Levis, Colorado consumer counsel, to USF Federal-State Joint Board, replacing Simon ffitch, state of Washington … Alliance for Women in Media new directors: Cyndee Everman, Time Warner Cable; Janet Noll, RFD-TV; Christine Travaglini, Christal Radio, Nicol Turner-Lee, NAMIC.
The FCC’s upcoming further notice of proposed rulemaking on USF contribution reform, expected to be voted on at the April 27 commission meeting (CD April 5 p1), will tackle the inconsistency over how different providers define how their contribution base is calculated, agency officials said. Because of outdated rules that haven’t kept up with changes in technology and how services are being sold, some providers can pass a lower USF charge on to customers, and that can lead to unfairness, a commission official said. The further notice will try to “avoid market distortions by closing loopholes and ensuring similar services face similar service obligations,” the official said.
CTIA and three of its major carrier members urged the FCC to rebuff a move by RLECs to change the commission’s policy on how intraMTA traffic is treated. The FCC has long held that calls originated by or terminated to a wireless carrier should be deemed “local” and subject to the reciprocal compensation framework, not the access charges regime, the wireless carriers said. Representatives of CTIA, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile met with Michael Steffen, aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski and with Wireline Bureau staff. “The intraMTA rule has been in effect for more than 15 years, has been upheld numerous times in court, and has always governed all intraMTA traffic,” the wireless carriers said, according to an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bm2uh6). “Last year’s [USF] Order once again properly rebuffed RLEC efforts to repeal this rule in the context of traffic delivered by interexchange carriers. To the extent the RLECs’ arguments rely on any suggestion that the [USF] Order created new law, they are simply incorrect.” The changes RLECs seek would “upend” the long-standing framework, “basing compensation on whether or not a particular intraMTA call was routed through an IXC,” the filing said. “This approach would depart from decades of Commission precedent, and create endless opportunities for gaming and abuse.”
Members of Congress and law enforcement agencies backed Big Bend Telephone Co.’s FCC petition for a waiver of some of the new limits on USF recovery. BBTC says it’s the only voice and broadband provider available in the vast majority of its territory, and all alternative providers in the area rely on the company for backhaul transport services. Both Texas senators, Republicans Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, wrote FCC members to describe the “unique circumstances” that make BBTC particularly worthy of a waiver (http://xrl.us/bm2s8s).
Reduced USF support for small, rural carriers in Minnesota, as a result of the FCC’s USF overhaul, would mean higher rates for consumers, more difficulties for providers to obtain loans and the potential for providers to go out of business, said a report by the Minnesota Telecom Alliance. It cited Paul Bunyan Communications in the state, which had announced plans to lay 500 miles of fiber to expand services to 2,600 potential customers in underserved areas. Now the company plans to lay only 100 miles that would reach fewer than 400 potential customers and might not plan any additional expansion in 2012, the report said. Another local provider, Halstad Telephone, had planned to upgrade its DSL services. As a result of the changes, it now plans to raise rates to help offset the estimated $250,000 per year revenue loss, the report said. Companies in the state are pulling back from investment due to the FCC’s reform and uncertainty over what might come next, said Brent Christensen, the alliance CEO.
A bipartisan group of 19 senators said the FCC should “immediately act” to remedy the group’s concerns over diminished rural communication network investment in the aftermath of October’s USF/intercarrier compensation (ICC) order, said a letter sent Tuesday to Chairman Julius Genachowski. Warning of “unintended consequences,” the senators requested a formal FCC clarification that the order “will not be implemented in a manner that perpetuates unintended outcomes."
The FCC is expected to take on USF contribution reform at its April 27 meeting, launching a notice of proposed rulemaking. Commissioners already approved orders addressing the start of distribution reform last October and the overhaul of the Lifeline program in January. But the contribution side of the USF program, how money is collected, has yet to be addressed by the FCC under Chairman Julius Genachowski. The FCC is scheduled to release a tentative agenda for the April open meeting on Friday.