Congress should ensure that broadband efforts maintain support for rural telcos, executives of four major rural telco associations told congressional staff at a closed meeting Monday of the Rural Telecommunications Task Force, a subcommittee of the House Rural Caucus. Reps. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., and Lee Terry, R-Neb., are the co-chairmen of the task force, but didn’t attend the briefing. The Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance, National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, Western Telecommunications Alliance and the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies asked Congress to ensure that rural broadband providers continue to receive support from the Universal Service Fund, intercarrier compensation “or some combination,” ITTA President Curt Stamp said in an interview after the meeting. It’s hard for rural carriers to justify investing in very remote areas without “something to fill in the gap,” such as stimulus money, USF “or some other mechanism,” he said. The rural carriers had approached the task force about holding a briefing last year, but today’s meeting didn’t come together until a few weeks ago, said ITTA Vice President Paul Raak. The task force is expected to invite the cable and wireless industries in for later briefings, Stamp said. Meanwhile, the rural telcos hope to hold more briefings with other congressional groups and plan to meet separately with every rural member, Raak said. He expects broadband to be a big issue for Congress this year. “Once you get past energy and healthcare … broadband is next.” But the Hill seems to be waiting for the National Broadband Plan before moving, Stamp said. “I don’t get the sense that there are a lot of members who are trying to influence the content of the plan.” But they'll likely have questions and suggestions when it’s delivered, he said.
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Senior Editor, is the state and local telecommunications reporter for Communications Daily, where he also has covered Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. He has won awards for his Warren Communications News reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, Specialized Information Publishers Association and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of dystopian science-fiction novels. You can follow Bender at WatchAdam.blog and @WatchAdam on Twitter.
Congress is watching the planned merger of Comcast and NBC Universal closely, and members are expected to weigh what it means to consumers and competitors, said Hill and industry figures. “This is one of the larger consolidations in the telecom/media space in history, and it is a matter of public interest, [and] it’s a matter of interest to those of us involved in telecommunications policy,” said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., in an interview. Boucher also outlined his legislative priorities for the new term, including work on a spectrum inventory, Internet privacy and the Universal Service Fund.
The NTIA and the FCC would be required to do an inventory of spectrum between 225 MHz and 3.7 GHz under an amended bill (HR-3125) approved Thursday by the House Communications Subcommittee in a unanimous vote. The panel also unanimously approved a bill (HR-3019) by Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., that would streamline moving federal users off bands to be reviewed by a three-member technical panel reporting to the agencies.
To more efficiently respond to technology convergence, the FCC needs written policies on inter-bureau coordination, GAO said in a report released Tuesday. GAO also urged improvements to the commission’s public notice and ex parte processes, and said the FCC must polish its strategy for recruiting experts to the agency. The FCC mostly concurred with GAO’s recommendations, saying it “had begun action in each of these areas even before the GAO prepared its draft report.” In statements, House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Joe Barton of Texas renewed his call for legislation, while Democratic members praised initial reform efforts by Chairman Julius Genachowski.
The Senate Antitrust Subcommittee may hold a hearing in late January or early February on the Comcast-NBC Universal merger, said Hill sources. Hearings likely will wait until after the companies submit their application to the FCC, which could be in the next week, one Hill source said. The House Commerce Committee is considering a Feb. 4 hearing (CD Jan 15 p9).
The FCC proposed amending emergency alert system rules to require national testing and data collection. In its latest rulemaking notice, issued Thursday, the commission sought comment on whether the proposed change would “effectively ensure accurate EAS testing at the national level.” Currently, FCC Part 11 rules provide for periodic national EAS testing, but mandates only state and local testing. No U.S. president has ever issued a national alert, and it’s never been tested, the agency said. EAS testing was one issue raised last year in the Public Safety Bureau’s 30- day review.
The House Commerce Committee is considering a hearing Feb. 4 on the Comcast-NBC Universal merger, Hill and industry sources said. The House Judiciary Committee and the Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees also have jurisdiction over the merger.
Public safety leaders seeking a national public safety wireless network flew into Washington, urging Congress to immediately reallocate 700 MHz D-block spectrum. Police, fire and other representatives held meetings Tuesday with Congressional leaders and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, they said at a press conference that evening. More than eight years after communications between public safety agencies broke down during 9/11, “we still do not have the ability to communicate with each other,” said Chief Robert Davis, president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. “We are profoundly disappointed that Congress and the administration have not acted to secure this critically needed spectrum for the protection of the public.”
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated two items related to broadband data sharing last week. One takes up a petition by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners for a declaration that rules don’t limit states’ collection of information from broadband service and infrastructure providers. The item on circulation is a proposed order resolving the narrow issue stated in the petition, an FCC official told us. Big phone companies have called the proposed rule an unjustified expansion of state authority (CD Nov 4 p5). The second item is a proposed order about Section 106(h)(1) of the Broadband Data Improvement Act, the official said. The section directs the commission to share with eligible bodies aggregate broadband data collected in FCC Form 477. The draft order interprets how the agency should share data, what “aggregate” means and how to protect the confidentiality of competitive data, the source said. Companies and consumer groups have fought over how much detail those requesting the information should get (CD Aug 3 p3).
An NCTA proposal being eyed by the FCC to shrink the Universal Service Fund met with resistance from rural carriers that could lose high-cost support under the plan. The cable petition, which would set up a two-step process by which parties can ask the FCC to reassess universal service support levels for specific geographic areas, is one of several cost-saving measures under consideration by the FCC broadband team (CD Dec 10 p1). In comments last week, rural ILECs said adopting the proposal would undermine the National Broadband Plan.