Special Access Data Request Unlikely Before Next Year

"It’s a classic data collection,” Veach said. “That process usually takes … four to six months, something like that.” The FCC can’t start to collect data until it gets OMB signoff, so a request is unlikely before early next year, she said. The bureau will work on its technical capability to process the data when it comes in next year at the same time as approval of the data request, Veach said. “We're doing on a parallel track so that that wouldn’t independently hold things up.” Industry officials told us Wednesday the bureau appears to be putting together a model they think they could use to identify where there’s special access competition today and where there is likely to be competition in the future.

"The data request is actually a complicated document,” Veach said. “I can say that because I'm a lawyer looking at it and there’s a lot of economics and statistics that goes into it. There’s just a lot of technical points that need to be nailed down.” Veach said the bureau will “share” the order with the commissioners.

"The Paperwork Reduction Act adds a whole new layer of paperwork, but there’s not much the FCC can do about that,” telecom lawyer Colleen Boothby, who represents the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee, told us. “They just have to get the data in the door and then turn the economists and analysts loose on it. There’s no doubt what the data will show -- market dominance by the ILECs that hurts consumers."

"The schedule won’t come as a surprise,” communications lawyer Andrew Schwartzman said. “Everyone knows this is a long slog,” he said. “I don’t think that anyone can be surprised anymore at how long this proceeding is taking,” said a lawyer who represents competitive carriers.

Free State Foundation President Randolph May hopes the White House takes a close look, he said. “If the OMB paperwork reduction cognoscenti really take a look at this data collection effort, they might well decide that it looks to be counterproductive and the special access re-regulation proposals are ill-advised."

Many of the questions lawyers attending the event asked Veach were on USF reform, a key focus of the bureau over the last 18 months. Veach said there have been some misconceptions about FCC efforts to broaden the USF contribution base. “I think sometimes people out there get the idea that by broadening the base we're growing the fund,” she said. “In other ways we're trying to stabilize the growth in the fund."

The bureau is making steady progress working through eligible telecom carrier applications in light of the FCC’s February Lifeline reform order (CD Feb 2 p1), Veach said. “We have a team of folks working on those,” she said. “We've been having in-person meetings to review the procedures for signing people up for Lifeline. Since the order came out, I understand we've approved 11 plans and we have 40 more to go, so we are making progress on those."

The bureau is pleased with the “quality” of applications for money from the FCC’s broadband adoption pilot program, Veach said. “We got a great mix of wireline, wireless, proposing to test different things -- some price, some speeds and capacity, some technology,” she said. “There’s an opportunity in here to get some great information on how to move forward eventually after the pilot.” The bureau is “getting close” to finishing its evaluation of the various proposals, she said.

Last week’s FCC workshop on CostQuest Associates’ Connect America Fund Phase II cost model proved helpful and brought in useful feedback for the commission (CD Feb 14 p1), Veach said. “We're still analyzing the back and forth that happened and thinking about it,” she said. “One thing I think we took away is how different things are than the last time we did this in the 1990s. When we did this in the ‘90s, the cost models that were submitted were brought in on floppy disk and didn’t involve a lot of intellectual property and things like [that]. It was just a much simpler process.”