LAS VEGAS -- Competitive Carriers Association officials warn that unless the FCC approves a mandate requiring that all devices built for lower 700 MHz spectrum work across the band, CCA members are unlikely to make much of a play in the upcoming incentive auction of broadcast spectrum. CCA officials cite what they say is a statistic that shows why an interoperability mandate is critical -- members of the group invested some $2 billion in the 700 MHz auction and most to date have been unable to roll out service.
The FCC’s budget for salaries and expenses would be cut 8.2 percent, equal to roughly $28 million, if a Congress doesn’t act to stop sequestration before Jan. 2, the White House said. The news came in the administration’s much anticipated sequestration report Friday, which detailed sharp across-the-board cuts to the budgets of most federal agencies. An industry group and a union representing FCC employees said the report shows the negative impact that sequestration will have on federal employees, private industry and the economy as a whole.
Higher education is ready to work with the commission on a connections-based contribution system, or an adjusted revenues-based system, the nonprofit association Educause told FCC officials (http://xrl.us/bnodj9). Under a numbers-based regime, higher education would pay up to 20 times more in USF fees than under the current revenues-based system, Educause said. Without end-users from whom to recover these additional fees, the added funds would ultimately have to come from staff salaries, and reduced student services, the group said.
The FCC faces no shortage of opinions on how best to move forward with its reform of the Rural Health Care Program, as telecom associations, healthcare providers and states offered suggestions in comments in docket 02-60 last week. Groups widely supported the program, and discussed the importance of exercising fiscal responsibility, but differed on whether the funds should be used for infrastructure buildout. Proposed reporting requirements also attracted disagreement.
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell will continue to push for USF contribution reform, though he still has an “open mind” about steps to take next, he said in an interview. McDowell has long championed taking on the contribution side of USF (CD Jan 9 p1). The FCC approved an order in October addressing the distribution side of USF and an order on the USF’s Lifeline program in January. In May, the FCC released a 182-page further notice of proposed rulemaking on contribution reform.
Representatives of the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association discussed “ongoing concerns” on the “transparency, accuracy, and predictability of regression analysis-based caps on universal service fund support,” in a meeting with aides to Commissioners Robert McDowell, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel. “NTCA raised the need to address these issues consistent with the Applications for Review filed by NTCA and many others,” the group said in an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bnmn8d). “NTCA further asserted that the Commission’s broadband policy objectives can only be achieved through clear and well-tested ‘business rules’ that provide sufficient support and enable company managers to predict with a reasonable degree of certainty what investments and operations will be recoverable (or unrecoverable) through USF support prospectively. NTCA explained that many of the necessary and appropriate changes can be achieved in short order without affecting USF ‘budgetary’ objectives or creating any technical or administrative concerns, and expressed commitment to working with the Commission to address these issues."
In the last two years, he has perhaps submitted more comments to the FCC than any other party. He has chimed in on dozens of dockets, from media ownership to USF. He has no law degree or experience in working in the telecom industry. So far this month, he has submitted more than 300 comments.
The National Public Safety Telecom Council began a working group to explore questions raised by public safety’s pending loss of the T-band, which was part of the February spectrum law. Public safety got the 700 MHz D-block in the legislation, but had to give up the T-band, heavily used in 11 major metropolitan areas. NPSTC sent out a questionnaire (http://xrl.us/bnkk2a) to gather information as the group prepares a report, targeted for release near the end of the year. Among the major cities where public safety uses the band are Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, New York, Houston and Washington, D.C. The legislation required public safety users to clear the band within nine years so it can be resold in an FCC auction.
Comments filed on USF contribution reform show little agreement and point to the need for more discussion, Verizon and Verizon Wireless said in FCC reply comments. That conclusion was seconded by many companies and groups filing replies this week. Though many suggested short-term fixes, most agreed there is little consensus to move to a numbers-based or connections-based approach.
More than 650 telecom providers signed a letter to commissioners “to ensure” the FCC and Congress “have clear and unambiguous notice of our collective concerns with the ‘regression analysis'-based caps” on USF support (http://xrl.us/bngrm9). A NTCA spokeswoman said the letter was an industry-wide effort in which several national and state associations, other groups and individual members “all reached out collectively to raise the visibility of this issue among policy makers in Washington.” The commission has received eight waiver petitions dealing with support reductions, of which one has been granted interim relief, a spokesman said. The commission also got two expedited waiver petitions dealing with boundary data, which it granted.