A measure adopted by the Senate to exempt the Universal Service Fund (USF) from the Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA) (CD Sept 16 p9) would let rural telecom companies “continue investing in their networks,” 4 rural telecom groups said. “We look forward to working with members from the House… to create a permanent fix,” the Independent Telephone & Telecom Alliance, NTCA, OPASTCO and Western Telecom Alliance said. The measure would extend for one more year an existing exemption of the USF from ADA provisions.
The FCC conditionally granted a TracFone Wireless petition seeking forbearance from a rule barring firms that don’t own facilities from participating in the agency’s “Lifeline” low-income support program. TracFone has said it needs the forbearance to be designated an ETC to get Lifeline support, since it provides service entirely on a resale basis. Tues. was the deadline for the FCC to act.
DTV legislation will be the first priority for Congress when it resumes session today (Tues.), with markups expected on House and Senate bills in the next 2 weeks. The bills will be part of a reconciliation package the House and Senate Commerce Committees must get to the Senate Budget Committee by Sept. 16. However, that deadline isn’t statutory and some expect a postponement, given the Supreme Court nomination hearings and focus on hurricane relief. The arrival within weeks of House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton’s (R-Tex.) baby might lead him to seek a deadline extension, some have speculated. Committee sources told us earlier this week there are no plans for a natal delay.
The FCC is likely to address digital radio multicasting and copyright protection issues at its agenda meeting Sept. 15, Commission sources said. “Parts are still in flux, but the FCC will address the issues,” an FCC source said.
ASPEN, Colo. -- Lawmakers shouldn’t necessarily legislate to speed transition to ubiquitous digital TV in the U.S., if industry addresses the issues thoughtfully, Rep. Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said Tues. “We all play a role in educating people about the impact of the transition,” she told the Progress & Freedom Foundation policy summit here.
Expanding the scope of the universal service fund (USF) to broadband networks may be “timely,” the Congressional Research Service (CRS) said Wed. In a 76- page report, CRS analyzed options for telecom reform in Congress and at the FCC, assessing levels of support and dissent among industry players and political constituencies. The report cited 2 main public policy issues: (1) Devising the best regulatory framework for encouraging investment and innovation in the broadband network and applications riding over the network. (2) Deciding whether the govt. should intervene in rural markets by expanding universal service to include access to broadband networks at affordable rates. Despite widespread consensus that today’s statutory and regulatory framework for telecom is ill-suited for the market, there’s disagreement about how to fix it, the report said. A key barrier -- an “administrative and legal morass,” in the authors’ words -- is deciding if an information service is purely an information service or has a telecom component invoking more rigorous regulation. The recent Supreme Court Brand X decision and an Aug. 5 FCC order helped clarify classification of information services, but the Commission has yet to address how to classify and regulate specific service offerings based on the underlying network architecture, the report said. For example, the FCC’s re-classification of DSL service as an information service rather than a telecom service had 2 effects on universal service: It reduced the funding base and limited funding to telecom services. Two other challenges to Congress in tackling a telecom law update: (1) Creating a regulatory framework that market changes won’t render obsolete. (2) Identifying regulatory elements suitable for handling at the state and local level versus those that should be centralized, the report said. It’s also timely for Congress to consider reviewing Title VI regulations to see if it would be in the public interest to streamline franchising by consolidating it at the state or federal level and lessen or eliminate some regulations, the report said. To enhance broadband competition, the report said, intramodal competition will continue to be important, especially for large business markets. It suggests maintaining some current statutory provisions for CLECs to foster that competition, “given the inability of facilities-based CLECs to attain the economics of scale needed to support ubiquitous networks. On the issue of intercarrier compensation (ICC) reform, where there again is widespread agreement on problems but dispute over solutions, the report advises Congress to “use its deliberations” to give the FCC statutory guidance. As for USF reform, congressional action clearly is needed for change, particularly in regard to assessments on providers and recipients of funds. With VoIP service emerging, Congress should consider reviewing Title II requirements on voice services. The FCC is “constrained by current statute” in its ability to provide regulatory parity to competing voice services, the report said, because some services meet the definition of telecom, some are information and some are “ambiguous.” Finally, on DTV transition, the report said Congress should leave multicasting to the FCC to “study and construct recommendations for rules (and, if necessary, statutory changes) to address the potentially related issues of mandatory carriage of multiple broadcast signals and better serving the needs and interest of viewers in different governmental jurisdictions.” This is likely to give momentum to political forces seeking to address the multicasting issue as a “study item” in DTV legislation. - - AV
The wireless industry urged the FCC to ignore ILECs’ request and modify a requirement that wireless ETC applicants submit formal 5-year network improvement plans to the agency to show they can provide the supported services. Wireline incumbents, who want that requirement maintained, said the plans provide target completion dates for each project that receives universal service support and ultimately will lead to a network that provides coverage throughout an ETC-designated area. Calling the requirement “unrealistic” and “overly burdensome,” wireless carriers asked the Commission to shorten the required build-out plan to 18 months or less.
State lawmakers from across the U.S. will tackle telecom and technology issues this week at the National Conference of State Legislatures’ annual conference in Seattle. Proposed state and national telecom law rewrites and wrangles over municipal Wi-Fi are among the hot topics at the 5-day conference, which begins today (Tues.). About 7,000 state legislators, policy experts, advocates, govt. leaders and media are expected to attend.
Sen. Burns (R-Mont.) is drafting a bill to revamp the universal service fund (USF), expanding the contribution base and redistributing funding, Senate sources said. Sens. Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) and Snowe (R-Me.) are working with Burns on the bill, expected to be introduced early in Sept., Senate sources said. It’s likely to differ from the Smith-Dorgan bill (CD Aug 2 p1), which would apply USF contributions to all 2-way voice services and establish a separate fund for broadband deployment in rural areas.
The FCC said it plans to fine 2 carriers $1.5 million for not paying Universal Service Fund (USF) contributions and regulatory fees. The agency issued a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) proposing a $1.33 million fine against OCMC Inc. for not making USF contributions and a fine of $280,000 against Telecom Management Inc. (TMI) for not paying USF contributions or regulatory fees. The FCC action shows “a no tolerance policy” on carriers that fail to make such payments, the FCC said. OCMC is an operator service provider, interexchange carrier and toll reseller. It told the Commission it hadn’t paid because it was in a billing dispute with the Universal Service Administrative Co., which handles collection of USF contributions. But the FCC said “the existence of this billing dispute does not excuse OCMC’s violations” because carriers can’t “engage in self-help” by not paying fees during a billing dispute. TMI sells long distance, toll-free service and phone cards by reselling service purchased from Global Crossing and hadn’t registered as a reseller. Registration is necessary to be subject to the FCC’s fee programs. The companies have 30 days to pay the fines or file a written statement seeking a reduction or cancellation.