The National Broadband Plan should include a “significant discussion” of FCC “authority and jurisdiction issues,” representatives of public-interest groups said at a meeting with Chairman Julius Genachowski and aides. “On several different issues core to the NBP, including major USF and consumer protection issues, many commenters have either highlighted the inadequacies of Title I jurisdiction or argued that a Title II classification (with appropriate forbearance) would be a superior path,” said an ex parte filing. “Because the goals in the NBP require a sound legal foundation, the question of jurisdiction is paramount.” Representatives of the Media Access Project, Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America, Free Press, the New America Foundation and Public Knowledge attended the meeting.
Concern at the national level about switched access fees is likely to outlive the defeat of her bill to outlaw fee splitting in South Dakota, state Rep. Deb Peters (R-Hartford) told us. “The national regulators have begun to move on the issue of access stimulation,” Peters said Friday in an e- mail. “There have been letters from the U.S. Congress to the three South Dakota companies requesting information.”
Small rural telcos must answer questions about practices that large carriers call traffic pumping to increase access revenue, Democratic leaders of the House Commerce Committee told the companies in 24 letters sent late Tuesday. The inquiries follow up on October letters (CD Oct 15 p13) to AT&T, Verizon, Qwest and Sprint Nextel. An attorney for addressees of the new letter said he expects the rural carriers to be eager to cooperate.
As VoIP evolves, states and the FCC should exercise regulatory control, with the understanding that IP-based telecom and older modalities will co-exist for a long time, said panelists at the winter meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in Washington, D.C. VoIP is telecom’s future, but its proliferation will be matched only by its malleability and capacity to spawn new technologies, they said Monday.
The keys to running a successful state universal service fund are clarity of purpose and clarity of process, said panelists at the winter meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. In a Tuesday session, consultants Peter Bluhm of Rolka, Loube, Salzer Associates and Eric Seguin, vice president corporate development with contract fund administrator Solix, joined Elizabeth Barnes, a lawyer with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, in parsing the best methods for managing a fund.
Universal Service Fund legislation by Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Lee Terry, D-Neb., could win more urban support by integrating aspects of two other USF bills introduced by Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Doris Matsui, D-Calif., said industry officials. But some warned that a combination could simultaneously cost the support of current backers of the Boucher-Terry legislation. The urban legislators’ bills, proposing new E-Rate and Lifeline programs to spur broadband adoption, may be at odds with the cost-saving focus of the Boucher bill, they said.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced a bill Tuesday that would update the Universal Service Fund E-Rate program to increase broadband adoption. After the FCC releases its National Broadband Plan next month, it’s expected the House will take a close look at the Markey legislation, a bill on broadband affordability (HR-3646) by Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and a long-gestating USF revamp bill by Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., as possible ways to overhaul USF, said a House source. Markey’s E-Rate 2.0 Act (HR-4619), co-sponsored by Matsui and Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., would direct the FCC to start three E-rate pilot programs. One would distribute vouchers to low-income students to buy residential broadband services, Markey said in the House Tuesday as he introduced the bill. The second would open a competitive grant program to provide funding for broadband equipment and services to “selected community colleges and head start facilities that best demonstrate need and incorporation of broadband use in their educational mission,” Markey said. The third would allow certain E-rate applicants serving “particularly low-income students to apply for significantly discounted services and technologies for the use of e-books,” he said. The bill would also increase the current $2.25 billion cap on E-Rate to adjust for inflation, and streamline the application process. NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow praised the bill as “proposing pragmatic steps that will enable students participating in the federal school lunch program to utilize broadband to improve their educational experience.”
The FCC is expected to establish a mix of proposals and options to provide broad direction for Universal Service Fund/intercarrier reform, said Stifel Nicolaus in a note. “We believe the FCC would like to trim fat from high-cost USF voice support, shift funding to broadband adoption and deployment, expand the USF contribution base and reduce and unify intercarrier compensation rates,” the analysts said. The drive for reform creates risk for rural local exchange carriers “if the commission moves to cut intercarrier compensation without providing adequate revenue replacement.” The upside could be “if reforms help RLECs compared to current trends by shifting cost recovery from declining intercarrier access charges to greater (broadband-oriented) USF support and end-user fees.” Verizon, AT&T and Qwest are likely to benefit from USF revisions and intercarrier rate cuts. “Wireless carriers seek greater USF parity, and while their voice support appears at risk, the FCC is looking to promote mobile broadband,” the analysts said. Reforms could possibly be followed by litigation. “Congress could help by clarifying the FCC’s jurisdiction, but legislation remains a tough sell.”
Federal universal service support for wireless carriers should be limited to one connection per household to help support broadband deployment to unserved areas, Qwest said in an ex parte filing. Fifty-two percent of wireless lines are in family plan packages and on average there are 2.8 handsets per wireless family plan, the telco said. Based on 2007 wireless market data, “Qwest’s calculations reflect an estimated Universal Service Fund savings of $463 million if USF high-cost support were limited to one handset per wireless family plan.” To perform its calculations, Qwest assumed that all competitive eligible telecommunications carriers receiving high-cost support are wireless providers.
An order circulated for a vote at the Feb. 11 FCC meeting proposes changes to the E-rate program to allow participating schools to open their networks to the general public after school hours without reducing the school’s level of Universal Service Fund support. Currently, schools are permitted to allow the public to access their computers, but they have to cost validate and reduce the amount of USF they receive.