Some small rural phone companies are asking if Google and other content providers should contribute to the Universal Service Fund. In filings and meetings this summer at the FCC, the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association has urged the FCC to open a rulemaking on the subject (CD Aug 31 p9). Content providers impose significant costs on companies’ networks, and charging them for USF would further the FCC’s broadband deployment goals, said NTCA Vice President Dan Mitchell in an interview. But a Google spokesman disputed the credibility of NTCA’s evidence. And some phone companies aren’t sure the proposal can be implemented.
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.
It’s not bad to be worried about the FCC’s national broadband plan, because that response probably will increase creative thinking as the commission develops its recommendations, plan coordinator Blair Levin said Wednesday at an event held by the Udwin Breakfast Group. “To a certain extent, I want you to be worried. I want everyone in this room to be worried. I'm worried.” The country’s broadband problems aren’t easy to solve, he said. “What should worry you is if we have a knee-jerk reaction.”
Cooperation among federal, state and private bodies is pivotal to the success of the national broadband plan, government officials said Tuesday at an FCC workshop. “If we win, it will be because we figure out that balance,” said Jane Patterson, executive director of the e-NC Authority in North Carolina. Eric Garr, the general manager of the FCC’s broadband plan, agreed. “This is a team sport,” he said. “It certainly requires federal action. It requires great partnerships with industry. It requires very dedicated officials from state and local government to make all this work.”
Prisons and their phone companies urged the FCC to ban call routing services that reduce the cost of prisoner phone calls. In comments Monday supporting a petition by inmate telco Securus Technologies, the groups said security and public safety is threatened by ConsCallHome and similar services that give families of inmates local numbers in a specified prison’s exchange. The local number reroutes calls to the family member’s actual number. Securus, which owns several companies providing phone service for inmates, wants the commission to declare the service is a form of dial-around calling that inmate telcos may block.
Many factors affect what actual impact broadband availability has on economic growth, economists cautioned the FCC in a broadband workshop Wednesday. Historically, broadband deployment has spurred economic growth in some -- but not all -- areas, they said. “If all we did is provide broadband to underserved communities, it would probably not provide any benefits at all,” said University of Maryland Prof. Brent Goldfarb.
Network connectivity is crucial to building a smart grid that enables more efficient electric power use in the U.S., government and electric industry officials said at an FCC broadband workshop Tuesday afternoon. However, panelists disagreed about whether the public wireless network is robust enough to support applications that go beyond basic metering.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated three Universal Service Fund items Friday. They concerned the E- rate program, a petition by the Coalition for Equity in Switching Support about the high-cost program, and a petition by U.S. Cellular regarding Lifeline verification rules. The chairman also circulated an order Thursday closing a 1995 investigation into GTE tariffs. The E-rate item is a notice of proposed rulemaking on updating the program to comply with last year’s Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act, an FCC official told us. The item on switching support includes an order and a notice of proposed rulemaking that would deny the coalition’s petition but open a new proceeding to look into the matter, the official said. The switching support coalition protested an FCC rule that reduces a small incumbent carrier’s LSS support when its number of access lines climbs above a specified threshold but doesn’t increase support if its access-line count falls below the threshold (April 22 p9).
AT&T saw wide support from other carriers on its appeal of a decision by the Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC), which found that the telco submitted inaccurate line count filings during an audit. USAC uses line counts to determine USF support for carriers. In separate comments last week, Verizon, Qwest, USTelecom and the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance urged the FCC to revise the quantitative standard that USAC used when it determined that three regional AT&T companies’ noncompliance with FCC rules was “material.”
International comparisons are important to the FCC’s development of an effective national broadband strategy, but the commission can’t rely on them alone, panelists said Tuesday at an FCC broadband workshop, about lessons from abroad. “No single equation or set of equations will replace reasoned, well-informed judgment,” said Yochai Benkler, a co- director of Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society.
Video providers are covered in a draft FCC notice of inquiry on truth in billing, commission officials told us Friday. The notice asks about extending existing wireline and wireless rules to broadband and video providers and about expanding the rules’ scope, they said. The FCC will vote on the notice at its Aug. 27 meeting. Few companies have been meeting with the commission about the item, which states no tentative conclusions (CD Aug 13 p4).