Eighteen seats on 10 states’ public utilities commissions (PUCs) were up for election Tuesday. Industry observers said in recent interviews that the results of elections to the Montana Public Service Commission and Nebraska Public Service Commission are the ones that could have the most impact on telecom regulation. Two Montana PSC seats were up for a vote, and one Nebraska PSC seat was on the ballot.
NTCA rural telecom advocates took to Capitol Hill for scores of visits last week with congressional offices to outline priorities from USF to retransmission consent overhaul to call completion problems. NTCA held its first Telecom Executive Policy Summit (see 1410270035) and on Tuesday brought its members to Hill offices, which senior NTCA officials told us is one of the association’s most effective strategies.
A circulating FCC order would resolve a dispute arising from the USF/intercarrier compensation order by requiring long-distance providers to pay access charges to over-the-top VoIP providers, a commission official told us Tuesday. The order would determine that VoIP providers and carriers they partner with are entitled to the same compensation as others when they exchange voice traffic, the official said.
The FCC seems likely to increase the broadband speed requirement for getting Connect America Fund funding, and the agency could increase the amount of E-rate funding, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly predicted in a speech Monday at an NTCA event. O’Rielly also urged the organization to push for USF reform this year so the commission would be able to move on to other issues, like allowing rate-of-return carriers to get CAF support as they want, O’Rielly said. He pledged to “do what I can to push for rate-of-return reform” by summer and called it “a necessary part of meeting our obligation under the statute to ensure that all consumers have access to reasonably comparable services at reasonably comparable rates.”
Dozens of education groups, including local and state boards of educations, urged the FCC to increase E-rate funding, in an Oct. 16 letter (http://bit.ly/1vNh1xX) to commissioners, posted Tuesday in docket 13-184. “A sustainable, well-funded E-rate program is critical to ensuring educational opportunity and success for every student and library patron as we look to bolster the nation’s economic competitiveness,” the letter said. The groups said the “influx of learning devices in classrooms and libraries has increased demands on networks. Yesterday’s connectivity speeds simply do not meet the needs of today’s students and library patrons. Efficient and dynamic classrooms and libraries need high-speed connectivity, and they need additional E-rate support to deliver it. E-rate must possess sufficient resources to ensure that all students and patrons can gain access in schools and libraries to the high speed broadband they need to excel in school and beyond.” The letter was silent on how funding should be increased and whether the agency should expand the USF contribution base.
Speakers strongly disagreed over whether the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires a rewrite or, as some preferred to say, an update. Representatives from the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute and Computer & Communications Industry disputed the idea that any real overhaul is necessary, while an analyst from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation insisted a full rewrite is warranted.
The Competitive Carriers Association lauded Reps. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and Peter Welch, D-Vt., for their call for revamped Mobility Fund rules. “I couldn’t agree more that consumers in rural areas deserve the same access to high speed mobile broadband as their urban counterparts,” said President Steve Berry in a statement (http://bit.ly/1nmiYj0) about a letter the lawmakers sent Tuesday to the FCC. “The job of building mobile coverage in rural America is not yet done. I cannot stress enough the importance of Universal Service Fund (USF) support for competitive carriers maintaining and expanding their coverage areas, especially smaller carriers with limited resources in a challenging competitive and economic environment.” As the FCC looks at its Mobility Fund rules, it should "continue to work to fulfill the obligations required in Section 254 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act in order to deliver a 21st century rural wireless infrastructure that allows our communities to take advantage of the endless opportunities within a mobile society," Latta and Welch said in their letter. They cautioned against "scattered or inconsistent" wireless service for rural consumers. The FCC should “recognize the numerous benefits of mobile broadband services” and “ensure that all consumers -- whether urban, suburban or rural -- have the opportunity to access high speed data and voice coverage,” Berry said.
Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., laid out her technology vision Thursday. “To stay ahead of the curve, I've developed several principles that can help our country maintain its high tech edge -- a proposal called, ‘A Fresh Technology Agenda for Growth, Innovation, and Opportunity,'” Fischer said in an op-ed for The Hill (http://bit.ly/1ycZKjS). “It’s an effort to spur a real debate about the best federal policies to empower creators and consumers.” She posted a seven-page agenda on her website and attacked the FCC for certain policies. The FCC “sends businesses the wrong signals, meddles in local affairs, and fails to prioritize how best to improve rural citizens’ access to modern networks,” said Fischer (http://1.usa.gov/1oVb4bZ), slamming FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler for proposing to pre-empt state laws restricting municipal broadband networks. Fischer’s document called for upping the focus on rural call completion problems and overhauling USF rules “so that providers have more of an incentive to bring broadband Internet service to consumers.” Her manifesto urged regulatory humility and attacked the FCC for its now-abandoned Critical Information Needs study: “I led the effort in the U.S. Senate to defeat this terrible proposal,” she said. She attacked FCC consideration of Communications Act Title II reclassification of broadband and the FTC for its “unwarranted investigations and aggressive regulatory treatment toward American technology companies.” Fischer, a member of the Commerce Committee, is meeting with Silicon Valley tech companies, such as Apple, Facebook and Google, said her office. “A Communications Act reform would be one venue to push some proposals, although it may not be the best fit for all the reforms that Senator Fischer is proposing,” a Fischer spokesman told us. “While it remains to be seen just how some of these reforms would advance, Senator Fischer is happy that more in Congress are prepared to have the discussion.” Her spokesman said Capitol Hill’s “appetite for addressing needed changes to telecom policy” is “encouraging.” In the op-ed, Fischer dismissed Washington as “way behind” in its regulation of health IT “with old rules that predate the VCR,” and said “Congress must modernize outdated federal regulations,” pointing out concerns about how Food and Drug Administration rules affect mobile health applications. She touted efforts to require the FCC “to be more responsive to all individuals who apply for a new technology or license” and her backing of the E-Label Act.
The FCC has been implementing recommendations from its report on process reform to reduce the number of pending items and move incoming items through the FCC system faster, said Diane Cornell, special counsel to the Chairman’s Office, in a blog post Thursday (http://fcc.us/1oVdirW). Efforts to streamline processing have led the Enforcement Bureau to “largely complete” its review of pending complaints, which in turn led to the Media Bureau granting “almost 700 license renewals this week,” Cornell said. The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau has closed more than 760 dockets and sought comment on another 750 dockets that could be eligible for closing by the end of 2014, Cornell said. Between May and September 2014, the Wireless Bureau resolved 2,046 applications older than 6 months, creating a 26 percent reduction in its applications backlog, Cornell said. The process improvements responsible for the enhanced efficiency include the FCC’s consent agenda, Bureau specific backlog reduction plans and best practices, said Cornell. These have led to the Media Bureau issuing effective competition rulings in omnibus form, the International Bureau eliminating the effective competitive opportunities test for submarine cable landing licenses and 214 applications, and the Wireline Bureau streamlining USF appeals, the report said. Further process reforms will come in the months ahead, and will be accompanied by periodic updates, Cornell said.
House staffers kicked off the planned internal bipartisan briefings on overhauling the Communications Act, as expected (CD Oct 2 p6). Republicans on the House Commerce Committee announced plans to overhaul the act in December, but Republicans and Democrats had not communicated about the initiative until now.