Lobbyists from rural telcos pressed their case for reform of...

OPASTCO, the Western Telecommunications Alliance, National Exchange Carrier Association, NTCA and from Fred Williamson Associates met with Zac Katz, adviser to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett and other staff from the Wireline Bureau. They pushed the reforms in comments in the USF and intercarrier comp dockets (CD April 19 p3), which they said would meet the commission’s objectives of fiscal responsibility, accountability and modernization, “while at the same time preserving the core tenets of a rate-of-return framework that has proven strikingly effective and efficient in enabling substantial rural broadband penetration (and upgrades to existing plant) in recent years at a minimal (3 percent) annualized growth rate in support.” The rurals said their proposal would also avoid “legal and practical complications” around Title II. “Given that the Commission has previously concluded that broadband Internet access services are non-regulated and thus not subject to Title II requirements, a host of legal and practical complications would arise in attempting to identify and address non-regulated costs and revenues without any structure to define the proper accounting of them or to ensure the just and reasonable nature of them -- which, by definition, means they will need to be in some form ‘regulated,'” the lobbyists said in their ex parte notice. It’s “unclear which non-regulated services might be included” in USF reform, but the rural plan “would establish a support mechanism for broadband-capable networks that works within and is entirely consistent with the plain language of Section 254, the Title II regulation of transmission networks, and the Commission’s prior determination to classify broadband Internet access service as a non-regulated service."