House appropriators voted to cut FCC FY13 funding 5 percent to $323 million, during an Appropriations Committee markup Wednesday. The bill, which now awaits consideration on the House floor, gives the FCC $24 million less funding than the agency’s FY13 request of $347 million. The committee removed a provision that would have prevented the FCC from implementing its requirement for broadcasters to post political file information online.
The FCC Wireline Bureau Thursday granted four petitions seeking temporary waivers of a June 1 deadline to implement new Lifeline eligibility rules (http://xrl.us/bm9yxb). The bureau gave USTelecom a six-month extension for 13 of the states indicated in its petition, as well as the eligible telecom carriers in those states that rely on the state to sign someone up for Lifeline. It also granted extensions for California to transition to a new third-party vendor and enable collection of partial Social Security information and dates of birth; and to Oregon and Colorado, which need to change their state laws to reflect new federal rules.
Two months after the FCC’s declaratory ruling to “remind” carriers about the longstanding prohibition on traffic restriction, call completion problems aren’t getting any better, several rural carriers and state public utility commissioners told us. Call completion will remain a problem until the FCC actively enforces rules already on the books, they said, stressing the inability of state commissions to deal with problems that cross state lines. According to a survey by network and infrastructure company Anpi Zone presented Thursday at the “IP Solutions” conference in Indianapolis, more than 60 percent of ILEC and CLEC respondents said call-quality problems have either not improved or gotten worse since the declaratory ruling.
A bipartisan group of 19 senators said the FCC should “immediately act” to remedy the group’s concerns over diminished rural communication network investment in the aftermath of October’s USF/intercarrier compensation (ICC) order, said a letter sent Tuesday to Chairman Julius Genachowski. Warning of “unintended consequences,” the senators requested a formal FCC clarification that the order “will not be implemented in a manner that perpetuates unintended outcomes."
Work at the FCC is intensifying on changing the Lifeline program that funds phone service for poor people, commissioners from both parties said Friday. A new draft of the Lifeline order circulated Tuesday night, prompting Commissioner Robert McDowell to return to Washington from a World Radiocommunications Conference in Geneva, he noted. Both McDowell and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told a panel at the Minority Media and Telecom Council conference that the order tries to address waste and other inefficiencies in the subsidy program. Clyburn voiced support for the idea of broadband pilot tests, while McDowell said increases in one part of the Universal Service Fund mean all phone customers must pay more in USF fees unless there are other cuts.
Almost three months after the FCC approved a Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation reform plan, major industry players continue to seek significant changes. Comments were due last week on a further rulemaking notice approved as part of the order. How USF dollars ultimately will be divided as the fund is reconfigured to primarily pay for broadband is the key question addressed in most filings. They show that the FCC still has a huge job ahead as it continues to tackle changes to the USF. Numerous petitions for reconsideration have been filed in response to the Oct. 27 order. A second round of comments focusing on intercarrier compensation issues is due Feb. 24. Next week, the commission will begin to tackle Lifeline reform. Also looming are likely changes to the contribution side of USF.
The FCC can expect to be flooded with petitions to reconsider its Universal Service Fund reforms (CD Oct 28 p1), telecom officials said and the public record showed. Petitions were expected from nearly every sector of the telecom industry, from state regulators to rate-of-return carriers, several telecom officials said. The commission is drafting a sua sponte -- of its own accord -- reconsideration in an effort to head off one of the thorniest issues in the docket -- whether local rates on local traffic exchanged between wireless and wireline companies should be subject to bill-and-keep immediately, FCC and telecom officials told us.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear challenges to the FCC’s Universal Service Fund order, it was announced late Wednesday. At least 13 challenges have been filed in various circuits; the 10th in Denver was picked in the judicial lottery to take the case. But even as the case was winding its way through the system, FCC officials on Thursday warned lawyers and lobbyists for wireless companies that the commission was hoping to launch a further rulemaking on reverse auctions as early as next month, with a goal of having the first auctions by the end of Q3 2012.
NTCA held a flurry of last-minute meetings with FCC staff just days before the group filed an appeal of the commission’s Universal Service Fund order (CD Dec 12 p7), records on docket 10-90 showed. NTCA Vice President Michael Romano joined executives from Vantage Point Solutions and TDS in two meetings with Wireline Bureau staff on Wednesday, one meeting addressing the costs of meeting increased speed standards and the second meeting addressing traffic exchanges, according to an ex parte dated Friday and released Monday (http://xrl.us/bmks85). A day later, Romano joined executives from the National Exchange Carrier Association, OPASTCO and TDS Telecom to discuss caps on operating and capital expenses, a separate ex parte notice showed (http://xrl.us/bmktat).
It will be “more of the same” for the FCC in 2012, Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus told the Practising Law Institute conference Friday. The FCC still has significant work left expanding broadband adoption and addressing the country’s spectrum deficiencies, he said. Privacy experts on a separate panel said they expect the FTC and FCC to increase their focus on online privacy and cybersecurity issues in the coming year.