State regulators want their values to be part of any Communications Act updates that the House Commerce Committee works on. In early December, Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., announced intentions for white papers and hearings on the broader Telecom Act updates in 2014 and legislation to be introduced in 2015 (CD Dec 4 p1). Two key NARUC telecom commissioners and its general counsel told us Friday it’s the right time to reexamine the Communications Act and they want states to be a part of the conversation.
Adak Eagle Enterprises and its subsidiary, Windy City Cellular, met with an aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Monday to ask the commission to grant its petition for waiver of the per-line monthly caps on high-cost universal service support, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1jmUWlk). “The companies have embodied the very purpose of universal service by working hard and reinvesting USF support to maintain essential services -- including the only reliable 911 service, the only broadband service, the only wireline service, and the most comprehensive wireless service -- for residents, government agencies, business, and workers on Adak Island -- one of the most remote areas of the United States,” said the Alaskan carriers. The Wireline and Wireless bureaus’ rejection of the waiver request makes no sense “from a legal, policy, or fiscal perspective,” they said. “AEE and WCC are hopeful that the Chairman will promptly correct course before their interim relief expires in two weeks and the companies are forced into bankruptcy."
Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, introduced telecom and broadcasting bills in the last two weeks, both referred to the Senate Commerce Committee. On Wednesday, he introduced the Rural Broadband Investment Act of 2013, S-1858. The bill proposes to end “well-documented flaws in the FCC’s 2011 Universal Service Transformation Order that caused financial burdens to small- and mid-size communications carriers operating in rural areas,” Begich’s office said, slamming the USF’s quantile regression analysis as “questionable statistical analysis.” His Thursday press release included statements of support from Greg Berberich, CEO of the Matanuska Telephone Association, and Alaska Telephone Association Executive Director Jim Rowe. Begich points to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s recent announcement that he may end the quantile regression analysis, but Rowe said the “legislation is important to rural telecommunication companies because it not only addresses the QRA, but also two other important provisions within the transformation order which are the safety net additive and waivers.” According to a summary of the bill provided to media, the legislation creates a timeline for the FCC to develop an order “to ensure USF reforms are achieved in a manner that is both consistent with the nation’s universal service objectives and fosters those objectives.” Under the bill’s proposal, quantile regression analysis would be halted, and on an interim basis, “at a level equal to the combined operating and capital expenses the carrier had for calendar year 2011 adjusted for any revisions resulting from restoration of the Safety Net Additive or FCC action on a waiver petition,” Begich’s office said. The FCC would also have to file qualitative and quantitative analyses for the Senate and House Commerce Committees within 60 days of the bill’s enactment “assessing the amount of USF necessary to meet the nation’s universal service objectives over the next ten years and a specific analysis identifying the unique circumstances and resulting high cost fund support needed to provide and maintain universal service in Alaska and on Tribal Lands,” it said. On Dec. 12, Begich introduced S-1819, which would amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act “to provide eligibility for public broadcasting facilities to receive certain disaster assistance, and for other purposes,” according to its long bill title. Neither bill has cosponsors.
The impending end of the USF quantile regression analysis, disclosed by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler while being questioned at Thursday’s House Communications Subcommittee hearing, came as a shock to industry members who had long been urging QRA’s elimination. Wheeler told Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., he had asked the bureau to draft an order “to eliminate the QRA and return to the high-cost loop support model” (CD Dec 13 p4). There’s no word from the Wireline Bureau about what the replacement will look like, but many industry officials we interviewed were hoping for a predictable model based on plant depreciation.
Hill pressure on the idea of cellphone conversation on airplanes while in-flight escalated Thursday as all five FCC commissioners faced the House Communications Subcommittee, hours before the agency took up an item to propose allowing such conversation from a technical perspective (see separate report in this issue). At the hearing, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler defended the proposal and said he’s talked with others in government about what will happen next. Members of both houses of Congress have raised the controversial issue, and the U.S. Department of Transportation is kicking off a process that may ban voice calls on planes, officials said.
Rural ILECs urged the Pennsylvania House Consumer Affairs Committee to eliminate carrier-of-last-resort (COLR) obligations and revise the state Universal Service Fund, at a hearing Thursday. CenturyLink, Frontier and Windstream were among the companies whose executives testified on House Bill 1608 at the hearing, sponsored by Rep. Warren Kampf (R). The committee also heard testimony from AT&T, AARP and the 60 Plus Association. This hearing was the continuation of one last month (CD Nov 22 p14) where Verizon, two Pennsylvania public utility commissioners and the state’s consumer advocate testified.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler backs a draft proposal to authorize cellphone use on airplanes in-flight, in prepared testimony for a Thursday House Communications Subcommittee oversight hearing. “I do not want the person in the seat next to me yapping at 35,000 feet any more than anyone else,” Wheeler plans to tell Congress (http://1.usa.gov/1bWwJOQ). “But we are not the Federal Courtesy Commission.”
The FCC Wireline Bureau suspended AT&T’s special access tariff revisions Monday. Agency officials told us the burden now shifts to the telco to demonstrate its filings are just and reasonable. The agency has five months to investigate, and the bureau will soon release a more detailed order focusing on specific questions and issues, commission officials said. They said all stakeholders will be able to file comments responding to AT&T’s comments. AT&T had sought to eliminate long-term contracts on its DS1 and DS3 special access services (CD Nov 26 p3).
The House Commerce Committee now takes up and may well pass two major telecom bills this week, aides and members said Monday. Reps. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., introduced the Federal Spectrum Incentive Act of 2013 Monday, with support of a top committee Republican and Democrats. Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., also has revived the FCC Process Reform in amended form, and it is now expected to pass House Commerce due to compromise between Republicans and Democrats.
Panelists at a Practising Law Institute wireline panel cited continued difficulties with application of the FCC’s Universal Service Fund revamp in rural areas. An FCC official said the agency is willing to make changes where it can. Telco officials said the intercarrier compensation (ICC) revamp has been working more smoothly. Panelists debated the necessity of FCC regulation of IP services as carriers and customers switch from legacy technologies to packet-based technologies.