Policymakers must address “end-user equity issues” on the Internet while keeping the platform “open and accessible to everyone,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., at a Third Way lunch Tuesday. She backed ISP price models that would force heavy users to pay more. Later, Rep. Doris Matsui, D- Calif., said government must provide money to spur broadband adoption among low-income Americans.
An FCC decision to maintain non-rural rules should not result in increased costs for Universal Service Fund high- cost support, some telecom companies and trade associations told the FCC in comments on a remand order by the 10th U.S. Appeals Court by April 16. In 2005, the court called the commission’s rules unlawful and said they affect high-cost area carriers that are considered non-rural because they have too many lines. Some groups backed the interim proceedings as a way to avoid increased high-cost support.
Public Knowledge formally asked FCC commissioners to reclassify broadband as a Title II service as part of the National Broadband Plan, in reply comments on the plan. Public Knowledge Legal Director Harold Feld had meetings at the FCC scheduled for Wednesday afternoon on the proposal, he told us.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., plans to circulate a discussion draft “soon” on planned privacy legislation to create safeguards for Internet users, the House Communications Subcommittee chairman told the State of the Net conference Wednesday. Whether companies and privacy advocates support the bill will depend on the details, representatives said in a later panel. They agreed that any legislation must strike a balance between consumers’ privacy rights and companies’ business plans, and should apply to both online and offline marketing. Companies said it’s important to encourage industry self-regulation.
Applicants for RUS broadband money who lost in the first funding round should try again in the second, RUS Administrator Jonathan Adelstein said at the winter conference of the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies. Adelstein announced $309 million in broadband grants, including one to OPASTCO member TDS Telecom’s Butler Telephone Co. He assured attendees that the RUS will soon spell out completely who succeeded and who fell short in the first round. Industry officials have expressed concern about the RUS’ and the NTIA’s slow pace in making awards (CD Jan 22 p1).
Allocating the AWS 3 spectrum block for a free national broadband plan would help the commission keep the cost of the Universal Service Fund under control, M2Z said in meetings with Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett, Wireless Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman and other FCC officials. M2Z’s website says its mission is to provide free wireless broadband access to 95% of the U.S. population. M2Z “discussed several scenarios that show how the free broadband proposal could constrain the growth of the USF Low Income program should the Low Income program be expanded to cover broadband services,” M2Z said in an ex parte filing. “According to M2Z’s analysis, based on certain assumptions, the free broadband service proposal could potentially reduce the cost of an expanded Low Income broadband program by at least $1.8 billion annually.”
Congress should ensure that broadband efforts maintain support for rural telcos, executives of four major rural telco associations told congressional staff at a closed meeting Monday of the Rural Telecommunications Task Force, a subcommittee of the House Rural Caucus. Reps. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., and Lee Terry, R-Neb., are the co-chairmen of the task force, but didn’t attend the briefing. The Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance, National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, Western Telecommunications Alliance and the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies asked Congress to ensure that rural broadband providers continue to receive support from the Universal Service Fund, intercarrier compensation “or some combination,” ITTA President Curt Stamp said in an interview after the meeting. It’s hard for rural carriers to justify investing in very remote areas without “something to fill in the gap,” such as stimulus money, USF “or some other mechanism,” he said. The rural carriers had approached the task force about holding a briefing last year, but today’s meeting didn’t come together until a few weeks ago, said ITTA Vice President Paul Raak. The task force is expected to invite the cable and wireless industries in for later briefings, Stamp said. Meanwhile, the rural telcos hope to hold more briefings with other congressional groups and plan to meet separately with every rural member, Raak said. He expects broadband to be a big issue for Congress this year. “Once you get past energy and healthcare … broadband is next.” But the Hill seems to be waiting for the National Broadband Plan before moving, Stamp said. “I don’t get the sense that there are a lot of members who are trying to influence the content of the plan.” But they'll likely have questions and suggestions when it’s delivered, he said.
Gila River Telecommunications is urging the FCC to grant permission in docket 80-286 to alter its intrastate and interstate networks. The telco determined which of its networks were subject to intrastate and interstate funding, and voluntarily locked them in 2001, “to reduce regulatory burdens as suggested by the commission,” it said in a filing. When GRTI changed its switches and carrier systems, its network “evolved from a switch-based network to a more efficient circuit-based network, to better utilize state-of the-art network design.” The petition was filed in Nov. 2006, and still remains pending. The freeze has cost GRTI more than $1.4 million annually in USF high cost support, it said. To continue expanding its network and providing “affordable service without rate increases to the mostly low- income tribal community, GRTI needs the high cost support to which it would be entitled but for its 2001 interim election.”
Congress is watching the planned merger of Comcast and NBC Universal closely, and members are expected to weigh what it means to consumers and competitors, said Hill and industry figures. “This is one of the larger consolidations in the telecom/media space in history, and it is a matter of public interest, [and] it’s a matter of interest to those of us involved in telecommunications policy,” said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., in an interview. Boucher also outlined his legislative priorities for the new term, including work on a spectrum inventory, Internet privacy and the Universal Service Fund.
Ascent Media Group notified the FCC of its support for a series of petitions in docket 06-122. Filed by Ascent, Millennium Telecom and Comscape, they seek reconsideration of USAC procedures in determining the liability of companies that make mistakes filing Form 499Q. “Ascent received a USAC invoice for $717,000 for a single month” after the company made an administrative error on Form 499Q, it said in a filing. The current “revision policy is inequitable and inconsistent with commercially reasonable practices,” Ascent said: “The rigidity of the current policy creates unreasonable hardship on USF contributors” and “in cases of inadvertent mistakes enforcement of the policy isn’t necessary to administer the USF.” Ascent said it was assessed more than $2.1 million by the USF, “while its total telecommunications revenues for the quarter were only $2 million.”