FARMINGTON, Pa. -- The NTIA has convened a working group to formulate the Obama administration’s position on pending Universal Service Fund changes, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said at an FCBA conference over the weekend: “The issue is important enough that the White House should have its own position on that.” The work group is led by John Morabito, head of the NTIA Office of Policy Analysis & Development, Strickling told us Saturday.
Public safety spending on 700 MHz D-block lobbying more than quadrupled in Q1 2011 compared to the same quarter last year, according to Q1 lobbying reports. The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials spent $80,563, 303 percent more than what the group spent in Q1 2010 and 66 percent more than Q4 2010. Meanwhile, the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association spent nearly five times what it did last year, and NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield said she expects the association of small rural telcos to continue spending at that level.
The FCC should “immediately” tackle phantom traffic and traffic pumping but should provide “careful transitions” as it reforms the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regimes with “great care,” USTelecom said in comments posted to dockets 10-90, 09-51, 07-135, 05-337, 01-92, 96-45 and 03-109. “Until targeted universal service support provides sufficient explicit funding for networks in high-cost areas, any mandated rate reductions must be coupled with a reasonable opportunity for providers to replace the revenues lost … through a combination of increased retail rate flexibility and a supplement fund,” USTelecom said. USTelecom is leading talks to try to come up with an industry-wide reform. But the commission has made clear that it wants to move to orders on USF and intercarrier comp distribution by the end of the summer. “Intercarrier compensation reform must be accomplished by providing opportunities for carriers to replace lost revenues in order to allow the continuation of support for networks, particularly those in high-cost rural areas,” USTelecom said in Monday’s comments.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- The FCC aims to adopt a universal service overhaul by August, Chairman Julius Genachowski said. “Over the next few months, we'll be able to significantly reform this program,” he said Thursday night at the Commonwealth Club civic forum. Genachowski mentioned the Universal Service Fund (USF) more than intercarrier compensation. But the matters are intertwined in a February rulemaking notice and a blog post last month by the commissioners that he discussed.
The FCC has many tools at its disposal to tackle spectrum constraints, whether it’s improving spectrum efficiency or freeing up more spectrum, Wireless Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman said at the Wireless Communications Association conference. The commission is looking at spectrum sharing and harmonization opportunities, and is willing to work with industry to come up with a solution to better inform consumers on throughput, she said Wednesday. It takes time to bring spectrum to auction, so “we have to start now” to avoid a spectrum crunch that will result in poor quality of service for consumers, Milkman said.
A dismal budget climate shouldn’t preclude support for broadband in tribal lands, Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday. Inouye, the Appropriations Committee’s chairman, signaled that he would support increased FCC funding for that purpose. Advocates for Native American communities sought additional broadband funding, including through the Universal Service Fund and a new Native Nations Broadband Fund.
AT&T and USTelecom are trying to revive dormant efforts to create an industry-wide proposal on Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime reforms ahead of the FCC’s rigid schedule, multiple industry officials told us. Similar efforts have foundered in the past -- including a concerted attempt in 2006-07 -- but this time, “I think there is a possibility for a very broad industry coalition on this,” said USTelecom Vice President Jon Banks. “The FCC knows we're trying to do this,” he added. “Everybody -- ILECs, CLECs, cable wireless, rurals -- is trying to put together a path for the FCC to follow.”
FCC review of the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile deal (CD Bulletin March 21) could take at least a year because the commission will review not only the deal’s impact on the national market but will go through individual markets around the country to assess the costs and benefits of the merger, an agency official said Monday. The commission is already trying to build up staff in the Wireless Bureau for the review, the official said. One name that has already surfaced is FCC economist Susan Singer, who had been detailed to the Office of Strategic Planning and may well be recalled to the Wireless Bureau to lead its review, the official said.
The FCC Thursday unanimously approved three items aimed at improving communications and radio service on tribal lands. Commissioners also heard testimony from tribal leaders about the state of communications in Indian country. The meeting came as the White House held a follow up meeting on last year’s Tribal Nations Summit.
President Barack Obama’s broadband stimulus program was “vindicated” by new NTIA findings that up to two-thirds of America’s schools can’t get broadband at speeds they need, NTIA Administrator Lawrence Strickling. Thursday, the agency unveiled its new broadband map. The map indicated that up to 10 percent of Americans can’t get broadband. The map is based on more than 125 million searchable records in the new mapping database, with information from some 1,600 broadband companies. “All of these records can be analyzed in countless ways,” Strickling said. “But the data continues to show that a digital divide continues to exist."