Invitations to serve on the FCC’s diversity committee will be made shortly, as work on the Universal Service Fund “soon” will culminate in a comprehensive order, Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus told minority and women communications entrepreneurs Friday. A day earlier, Commissioner Robert McDowell told the Minority Media and Telecom Council conference (CD July 22 p7) he worried about delays in changing USF to also fund broadband and in rejuvenating the Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age. Chairman Julius Genachowski’s staff told the Federal State USF Joint Board last week that the order on USF and intercarrier compensation (ICC) will be ready for the October meeting, an FCC official told us.
NARUC’s board approved a batch of policy resolutions at the conclusion of the group’s meeting in Los Angeles. A Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation resolution supports proposals on USF revamp by the state members of the Federal/State Joint Board. The resolution emphasized the critical role assigned to states by Congress, including in part through the mechanism of the Joint Board. If an industry-supported “settlement” proposal is filed in the USF/ICC rulemaking notice and subsequently released by the FCC for public comment, that agency is urged to jointly offer the state members’ plan for comment simultaneously and include a request to contrast the two plans, the board said. A Lifeline/Link-Up resolution urges the commission and states to work within the existing USF program budget to improve broadband adoption in urban and rural areas and for native nations communities on tribal lands through coordinated Lifeline and Link-up Broadband Service Pilot Program projects, among other issues. The FCC should say the pilot program participants are not required to change local phone service providers, purchase bundled broadband and voice services or otherwise be penalized in order to obtain Lifeline and Link-Up broadband services and enabling access devices, the resolution said. It urged the FCC and states jointly create at least one pilot program in each of the five NARUC-affiliated regulatory conference regions that will include digital literacy and outreach components and that will defray a meaningful amount of the program participants’ average cost for the installation and activation and monthly charges for broadband and acquisition of devices enabling access. A call termination resolution encourages the FCC to reaffirm “that no carriers, including interexchange carriers, may block, choke, reduce or restrict traffic in any way” and recommends the FCC and states take all appropriate actions to protect consumers by immediately addressing call terminating problems.
A closely watched FCC filing on reforming the Universal Service Fund to pay for broadband, which is backed by Comcast and others selling landline phone connections, will be ready as soon as next week. Verizon’s top executive in Washington predicted at a Minority Media and Telecom Council conference Thursday that the filing will be made next week and may be joined by the cable operator. Talks among many USF stakeholders led by USTelecom have been ongoing for some time, with the expectation of finishing the work this month or early next. Regardless of how wide support is for the USTelecom plan, the agency needs to soon approve an order on USF, Commissioner Robert McDowell told the conference. The USTelecom-led “framework” reached its conclusion in late June and has won favor with mid-sized telcos Windstream, CenturyLink and Frontier (CD July 6 p6).
Four Missouri Republicans joined rural telcos’ campaign to ward off what they see as the worst of the pending Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime reforms. Reps. Blaine Luetkemeyer, Sam Graves, Jo Ann Emerson and Vicky Hartzler said a letter dated Tuesday and released the next day. “We believe that in order to achieve the goals of this [1996 Telecom] Act, changes to the USF and ICC system must be made carefully and in a way that would enable carriers serving rural areas to sustain and improve upon affordable broadband where it already exists, to encourage deployment to unserved customers and not to harm rural customers who already have broadband service,” the letter said.
LOS ANGELES -- The FCC needs to recommit to the principles of Universal Service and revamp the system in a manner that won’t weaken the system that has helped connect rural America for decades, former Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said during NARUC’s summer meeting Tuesday. Meanwhile, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson emphasized wireless is essential for universal broadband. The AT&T/T-Mobile merger, which is getting a closer look from the California Attorney General, is a private party solution to achieve universal broadband, Stephenson said.
The controversy over the GOP’s efforts to use the Universal Service Fund to pay down the nation’s deficit ought to remind the telecom industry that the money is “finite,” AT&T Vice President Hulk Hultquist said Tuesday. Last week, the industry went into uproar when it emerged that House Republicans were considering using $1 billion from the fund to help close the budget gap (CD July 14 p1). Telcos small and large, which had disagreed over how to fix universal service, united in their condemnation. “There are definitely legal issues with that … that aren’t well understood,” Hultquist said at a Broadband Breakfast in Washington: “You know, there are limited means to do what we want to accomplish.”
LOS ANGELES -- There’s no time to lose in addressing issues with call completion because public safety, homeland security and economic well-being in rural America are threatened, said panelists at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners meeting. Meanwhile, no commitments were made during Chairman Julius Genachowski’s meeting with the USF Federal/State Joint Board and the NARUC Telecom Committee.
LOS ANGELES -- Panelists at NARUC’s summer meeting urged the FCC to address the missing pieces in the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation revamp. Those are contribution, speed and roles for small and rural phone companies, speakers said Sunday. Meanwhile, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski was expected to meet with the NARUC Telecom Committee and the Federal/State Joint Board at NARUC’s summer meeting late Monday.
Rural telcos opened their Washington blitz this week and pressed their case to protect Universal Service Fund revenue, ex parte notices filed in FCC docket 10-90 showed. In a meeting Thursday with Chairman Julius Genachowski’s aide Zac Katz, rural executives and leaders from their associations promoted their own reform proposals, said an ex parte notice. In a separate meeting with Christine Kurth, aide to Commissioner Robert McDowell, rural executives said their companies need “predictable and sufficient high-cost support and [intercarrier compensation] revenue streams” to “repay their outstanding Rural Utilities Service and private sector loans,” rural telco executives and members of the Western Telecommunications Alliance said. Rural carriers have promised to blitz the Capitol to protect their USF revenue.
Lawmakers shouldn’t tap into the Universal Service Fund, said NARUC President Tony Clark and Telecom Committee Chair John Burke. House Republicans are thinking about using USF to help pay down the budget deficit (CD July 14, p1). Congress is considering tapping the fund to help pay down federal debt. To divert the funds from their intended use would be counterproductive and may undermine the country’s broadband goals, they said. USF receives no federal monies and shouldn’t even be under consideration in the budget debate, they said. USF is funded by fees consumers pay through their phone company to ensure affordable access across America, they said.