The FCC Wireline Bureau granted a request by TeleQuality Communications to waive a commission rule regarding timing of reimbursement for services provided under the universal service rural health-care program. The rule requires waiting until the annual true-up before disbursement of rural health care program dollars. The bureau said there’s good cause to waive the rule, because otherwise TeleQuality won’t be able to sustain operations and provide discounted telecom service to its rural healthcare customers. The bureau told the Universal Service Administrative Co. to make an initial reimbursement payment within 10 days without deducting any USF contributions owed by TeleQuality, and to make any additional payments every two months.
Industry executives and others sought new broadband pricing, spectrum and subsidy program policy, at an FCC broadband workshop late Wednesday. Better access to spectrum, capital and network backbone are among the biggest needs in reaching the unserved and underserved, they said.
The FCC wants comment on a petition by Nebraska and Kansas regulators (CD July 21 p4) for the commission to declare that it never preempted states from charging universal service fees to interconnected VoIP providers on intrastate traffic. The states also asked the FCC to declare that individual states may impose the charges in any way that doesn’t apply to interstate revenue and that ensure no provider pays more than one state for the same intrastate revenue. The states said the FCC could open a rulemaking to decide the matter. Comments are due Sept. 9, replies Sept. 24. In an ex parte meeting last week with FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick, Vonage said the FCC “is free to revisit its decision to pre-empt state imposition of USF” by opening a rulemaking. The VoIP provider said the FCC’s 2004 Vonage pre-emption order said clearly that states can’t impose state USF obligations on the company. Vonage said it doesn’t object to contributing to a state USF, if the requirement applies only going forward. A rulemaking “would be the most legally defensible and equitable response” to the states’ petition: “Opening a rulemaking and inviting comment from all interested parties, including other state public utility commissions, will enable the Commission to offer uniform guidance and ensure that all states have the opportunity to adopt interconnected VoIP USF contribution requirements that do not conflict with federal policy.” A rulemaking could also prevent conflicts when the FCC overhauls the federal USF, it said.
State consumer advocates denounced a Qwest filing on universal service rules for nonrural carriers as “seriously incomplete” and filled with errors. In 2005, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the FCC to revamp rules on carriers like Qwest that serve high-cost areas but have too many lines to be considered “rural” by the statutory definition (CD May 12 p3). In an ex parte filing last week, the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates said the FCC should reject Qwest’s proposal for handling the court remand. A July ex parte by the carrier failed to mention much of the USF support it receives in other ways or that its plan would increase the high-cost fund by $1.2 billion, the association said.
Eliminating telephone excise and Universal Service Fund taxes are options that the Congressional Budget Office suggests lawmakers consider as they works on future federal budgets, a new report said. The options are two of 188 in a report sent to the House and Senate Budget Committees last week to help Congress set priorities in its annual budgets, said CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf. The ideas in the report aren’t recommendations and they aren’t given in order of priority, he said in the report’s preface.
CTC Telecom is an eligible telecommunications carrier entitled to federal funds to expand its wireless network in four Idaho counties, the state utility commission said on Thursday. ETC designation positions the wireless carrier, operating as Snake River PCS, to receive about $171,300 yearly from the federal Universal Service Fund. The company has ETC status in New Meadows, Council, Indian Valley, Cambridge, Garden Valley, Horseshoe Bend, Idaho City and Lowman. But commissioners denied CTC’s request to extend that to the Midvale exchange, because the company “did not demonstrate to the commission that it would serve the entire exchange,” the regulator said. CTC denied targeting low-cost areas in the exchange. “However, CTC’s decision to disaggregate the Midvale service area requires the commission to adhere to its previous rulings granting ETC status only in those areas where an entire service area is included in the carrier’s expansion plans,” the commission said. ETC status for Snake River also means its customers who meet state Health and Welfare Department guidelines will be eligible for Lifeline assistance of $13.50 a month, the commission said.
Residents of northern Mississippi are being surveyed on cellphone access, to help persuade carriers to improve service in that part of the state. Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, who represents the region, began a Zap the Gap campaign to pinpoint places where wireless access doesn’t match demand, he said. He isn’t trying to impugn the performance of carriers, he told us. “We just need more input. With the kind of Universal Service Fund money that the companies are getting, you should be able to get a good cell phone signal and not have dropped calls anywhere in Mississippi. The question is, why isn’t service better? Until now we've had to rely totally on the companies to monitor access and service quality, and they're not always right. But consumers know where the problems are, and we hope that by collecting that information and informing the companies we can get them to fix the situation.” He said carriers providing cellphone service in Mississippi have received more than $512 million since 2004 in federal USF payments. Presley said the money is supposed to go toward increasing rural deployment of cellphone services. “Yet we still have many places in the state, especially rural areas of North Mississippi, that don’t have service,” he said. “In today’s world, having reliable, dependable cellphone coverage is an important factor in the safety and quality of life.” The survey is at www.psc.state.ms.us/commissioners/northern/zapthegap.html. Presley said he’s talking up the survey in personal appearances and may produce public service announcements about it.
At an Aug. 17 meeting, Utah’s Public Service Commission will consider a petition by All West Communications for a rate increase and an increase in state Universal Service Fund payments. If granted, the combination would erase a deficit of nearly $766,000, the company said. The telco wants to raise its basic residential service rate from $13.50 to $16.50 per month, and its basic business rate from $23 to $26 per month. Those increases would neutralize $216,000 of the deficit, it said. The remainder would be addressed by approving an additional $549,390 in annual state USF funds for the company, All West said.
The FCC’s work with unlikely partners during the DTV transition helped prepare it for outreach on broadband, Commissioner Michael Copps said in an interview Friday with Communications Daily. The national broadband plan is “probably the greatest challenge we've been given in the history of the FCC,” he said. Reflecting on his five-month tenure as acting chairman, Copps told us that he’s “optimistic” morale at the commission has been on the mend since January, under his leadership and that of Chairman Julius Genachowski, who took over in late June. With the commission about to get back to its full complement of five members, Copps said, he wants action on several wireless and media items.
Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel executives visited the FCC together to discuss a universal-service condition imposed in commission orders approving the companies’ recent deals with Alltel and Clearwire. In a meeting with FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick and the Wireline Competition Bureau, the carriers discussed carrying out a requirement to phase out receipt of high-cost universal service support formerly received by AllTel and Clearwire, and how the condition interacts with the USF interim cap, said a Sprint ex parte.