Montana Independent Telecom Group Cites Government Overreach in Disbanding
Some state telecom associations, especially those representing rural telcos, said they are struggling with increased federal intrusion into areas that have traditionally been under state jurisdiction. Such overreach is the main reason one of the two rural telecom associations in Montana -- the Montana Independent Telecommunications Systems (MITS) -- chose to disband at the end of the month after 22 years, said state Public Service Commission Chairman Brad Johnson. That type of intrusion has been noticed less in states such as Kentucky, where an association is going strong and continues to advocate for members and figure out how to deal with FCC orders.
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This decision may be more about carriers in Montana making a statement that they dislike what the FCC is doing, said Regina Costa, telecom policy director for The Utility Reform Network (TURN). Roughly 1 million people live in Montana and are spread out over 147,164 square miles, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and that plays a role in the concerns members of the group have about federal pre-emption of state authority, Johnson said.
MITS was founded in 1994 and worked with cooperatives to provide access to broadband and global opportunities. Montana is one of the states with two associations that represent the telcos, which Home Telephone Co. Senior Vice President-Corporate Operations Keith Oliver said is a reason MITS is disbanding -- there isn’t a need for both anymore. He said it's difficult to determine whether MITS' disbanding can be attributed more to federal intrusion or to there being two organizations trying to represent the same interests "in an environment where you have shrinking authority on the state side."
Johnson said the biggest concern isn't about there being two organizations, but about FCC actions regarding the USF and intercarrier compensation reform order in 2011, which has brought change and uncertainty to regulatory issues. The power the federal commission has is worrisome, he said. “To see that [the FCC] specifically dealt with the intrastate interconnections is really telling in terms of just how ambitious the federal government has become in terms of its regulatory reach,” Johnson said. “To assume that the federal government can simply wave their magic wand and craft [policies] that are equally applicable in all 50 states just doesn't make sense and that's where the sense of frustration comes from on the part of state regulators.” The FCC declined to comment.
The Kentucky Telephone Association has 18 member companies and the organization is active, Executive Director Tyler Campbell said. While he has been on the job only two months, Campbell said the association takes into account every FCC order but that it focuses on advocating the message it wants to get across, not on how much the commission intrudes. While USF reform has been a point of contention, the organization has been figuring out how to manage it, Campbell said. “You always have a concern about potential regulations, but you do what you can in order to advocate your message and you hope you can figure out how to manage those situations,” he said. “Or you advocate hopefully to change their minds, if you think those regulations have gone too far.”
Johnson said while there will be other ways for MITS members' messages to be heard, it frustrates him that the federal government is the reason that group is calling it quits. “They decided that their efforts at the state level had become largely irrelevant because of the intrusion of federal policy into that arena,” Johnson said. “I find it problematic when you see an established organization like this go by the wayside specifically because of the federal government expanding its reach into areas that have long been the purview of the states.”