An FCC draft order to give over $500 million in new USF support to cooperatives and other small rural telcos (see 1801160040) would provide about $180 million to rate-of-return carriers receiving high-cost funding for the current year ending June 30, an agency spokesman told us Wednesday. He said the draft would provide "up to $360 million over the next decade to rate-of-return carriers" that receive support through an Alternative Connect America Model (A-CAM). "Some will be covered by reserves, but the item seeks comment on the appropriate budget for the program going forward," he emailed.
House Communications Subcommittee Republicans and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., filed opposing legislation Wednesday aimed at encouraging broadband deployments. House Communications Republicans filed three bills as part of an additional wave of legislation aimed at forming the backbone of the House Commerce Committee's work on a broadband infrastructure title that will follow the expected release of an infrastructure legislative proposal from President Donald Trump's administration (see 1801110058 and 1801160048). The Making Available Plans to Promote Investment in Next Generation Networks without Overbuilding and Waste (Mapping Now) Act, filed by Reps. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, and Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., aims to direct NTIA to update and improve the National Broadband Map. The Promoting Exchanges for Enhanced Routing of Information so Networks are Great (Peering) Act, from Rep. Billy Long, R-Mo., would authorize an NTIA matching grant program to promote creation and expansion of peering centers, and authorize recipients of funding from the USF E-Rate and Telehealth programs to use those funds to obtain connections to peering facilities. The Wireless Internet Focus on Innovation in Spectrum Technology for Unlicensed Deployment (Wi-Fi Study) Act, from Rep. Ryan Costello, R-Pa., would direct the General Services Administration to study the role of unlicensed spectrum and the potential for gigabit WiFi service in spectrum bands below 6 GHz. Eshoo and Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., separately filed their Broadband Conduit Deployment Act. The bill, which Eshoo circulated in draft form last year, would mandate “dig once” policies that require the inclusion of broadband conduit during the construction of road projects that receive federal funding (see 1703200067). “By laying broadband conduit during construction of roads that receive federal funding, broadband providers can later install fiber-optic cable without costly excavation of newly built roads,” Eshoo said in a news release.
Idaho USF probably isn't sustainable and may require a legislative fix, Public Utilities Commission staff said at a teleconferenced Wednesday workshop. The PUC is assessing state USF viability, as several other states also are expected to revamp state funds this year. State changes are appropriate, but federal action is needed, Joint Board on Universal Service State Chair Chris Nelson told us.
Alaska USF would be phased out by July 31, 2019, under a Regulatory Commission of Alaska proposal revealed in a Friday notice in docket R-18-001. The RCA proposed repealing Alaska Administrative Code Title 3 regulations on the fund, its programs and administration, plus revisions to ancillary regulations including intrastate access charge rules. Comments are due Feb. 26. Commissioners debated setting a date to terminate AUSF at hearings last year (see 1711080051).
A draft FCC order would give $500 million in new funding to cooperatives and other small rural carriers, and set "strong new rules to prevent abuse of the high-cost program," the agency said Tuesday. The item circulated by Chairman Ajit Pai to colleagues proposes changes intended to improve the high-cost USF program's "effectiveness and efficiency in promoting rural broadband deployment, including the use of a Tribal Broadband Factor to enable better access on Tribal lands," said a release. It contains a report and order, an order on reconsideration and an NPRM, an FCC official told us. An agency spokesman confirmed the tribal broadband factor proposal is in the NPRM.
FCC staff offered guidance on the Lifeline USF reimbursement process for eligible telecom carriers (ETCs), consistent with the direction the commission gave to the Universal Service Administrative Co. to devise a transition plan for phasing out Form 497. Starting "with the January 2018 data month, payment of Lifeline support for all ETCs in all states and territories (except for NLAD opt-out states) will be based on subscriber data contained in the National Lifeline Accountability Database," said a Wireline Bureau public notice in Thursday's Daily Digest. "Under the revised reimbursement process, payments will be made based on the number of subscribers enrolled with an ETC in the NLAD on the snapshot date for that month or, in NLAD opt-out states, based on data received either from the state or directly from the ETC. Further, beginning with data month January 2018, all ETCs must file their reimbursement request with USAC for subscribers being claimed for that month using USAC’s online E-File system." The PN provided further details on those filings and said the new process aligns with FCC plans to have a national entity verify consumer low-income eligibility for the program.
The Connect America Fund Phase II subsidy auction should be successful, even though questions remain about who will participate and what areas will be served, said consultant Carol Mattey, a former Wireline Bureau deputy chief, noting FCC draft CAF II items planned for a Jan. 30 vote (see 1801090050). Some areas probably won't get bids from local providers and "the extent of incumbent telco, cable and satellite participation remains a wild card," she wrote in a Benton Foundation blog Wednesday that sought to define success in the CAF II fixed-broadband reverse auction to begin July 24. "It is inevitable that some areas may have a bidder that doesn’t win, and other areas will have no bidder at all," she wrote. "The sum of the reserve prices for eligible areas is more than three times the auction budget, with bidders essentially placing bids that will result in lower and lower amounts in each successive round. Once the sum of bids equals the auction budget, the auction is likely to be largely over, with only limited bidding to resolve the remaining subset of areas where there are multiple bidders." If some areas end up with no winning bidder, she said, that doesn't mean the auction failed. "No matter what happens in the Phase II auction, it should be viewed as a success because it will help the FCC refine its thinking on how best to award USF subsidies to serve these rural areas," she wrote. The FCC in 2011 expected to have a Phase III auction by 2019 and is also eyeing a remote areas fund auction, she said, though its plans haven't been set.
Telcos pressed the FCC to act on a request for RLEC business data service deregulation. Industry officials stressed that new rules must become "effective by the end of 2018, so as to avoid model-based rate-of-return carriers having to perform highly resource-intensive cost studies for 2019," said an ITTA filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-144 on a discussion with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, which was joined by representatives of USTelecom, Consolidated Communications and TDS Telecom. An ITTA/USTelecom petition seeks a rulemaking to permit rate-of-return carriers receiving model-based USF support to opt into relaxed business data service regulations provided to larger, price-cap carriers (see 1708220025). The "regulatory relief sought by the Petition will help to promote the transition to IP-based networks by providing carriers incentives to invest in IP-based, Ethernet services," said the ITTA filing. "Therefore, we reiterated that it is critical that the Commission in the near term release a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on the petition’s proposals." The proposal faces resistance from Sprint and others (see 1707060051 and 1707070030).
The Senate passed under unanimous consent S-875 Wednesday, which would mandate that the GAO study filing requirements for the USF programs. The legislation, from Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, would direct the GAO to in part analyze the “financial impact” of those filing requirements and provide recommendations on how to consolidate redundant filing requirements. S-875 would require the FCC, after receiving the GAO report, to initiate a rulemaking to consolidate redundant filing requirements and incorporate any GAO recommendations that would not violate the Administrative Procedure Act. The Senate Commerce Committee cleared S-875 during a June markup session (see 1706290024).
House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., requested a GAO review Wednesday of the effects of the FCC's plan to move USF funds to the Treasury Department as early as this year. “Advancing universal service is one of the core tenants of the FCC’s mission, and any transfer should only follow close review and rigorous oversight,” Welch and Pallone said in a letter to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro. “We are concerned that the FCC seems poised to transfer the entire fund without having run a public process to assess the consequences of its action.” The GAO review should in part examine what controls the FCC has in place for the planned funding transfer and its process for analyzing potential obligations on USF that would result from the transfer. Democratic National Committee Vice Chairman Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and other House Democrats previously urged FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to reconsider the USF funds transfer plan (see 1709130058). The FCC and GAO didn't comment.