Lack of trained tradespeople and onerous permitting procedures could represent major challenges to broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program implementation, speakers said Tuesday at Incompas’ annual policy summit in Washington. The looming end of the affordable connectivity program (ACP) (see 2403040077) is a big wrench in the works of planned BEAD projects, said Evan Feinman, who leads NTIA's BEAD program. He said internet service providers are recalculating project costs, and many planned projects will go into the red as they receive less help covering their operating expenses.
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Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., voiced varying levels of optimism during a Tuesday Incompas conference (see 2403050052) about the prospects that lawmakers will be able to reach a deal on stopgap funding that will keep the FCC’s affordable connectivity program running past this spring. The FCC said in a Monday update on its wind-down of the program that it will be able to provide only “partial” reimbursements for ACP in May (see 2403040077). Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., highlighted their ongoing interest in enacting legislation to lift or ease permitting processes in a bid to streamline broadband deployments.
The Utah Public Service Commission set an April 5 technical conference on possibly tightening requirements for seeking state USF support. The Utah PSC said it opened docket 24-999-10 in response to Commissioner John Harvey’s request that the commission get more evidence showing that costs claimed by a telecom company to receive support are reasonable. Harvey suggested that this includes a showing that the utility has applied for federal funds that could offset broadband costs and that any broadband speed the company provides above the federal minimum “has been done without incurring additional costs … or that such extra costs are either insignificant (compared to the total costs of the project), or that the extra costs can be justified by other public policy considerations," the PSC said. Also, Harvey wants to see utilities show their network design “is the least cost design” and that they chose the lesser cost "option of self-construction versus contracted construction,” it said.
Numerous ISPs believe the affordable connectivity program's demise would give them a chance to snag subscribers from competitors. In earnings calls with analysts this quarter, many cable companies and telcos also told Wall Street they don't expect to take major hits to their subscriber base if the program ends (see 2311160076). The FCC said Monday that ACP funding will run out before the end of May (see 2403040077).
An all-but-certain bid by Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune (S.D.) to take over as the chamber’s top Republican from current Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) is throwing uncertainty into lobbyists’ expectations for who will hold the party's subpanel leadership role in the next Congress. In the House, some Republican contenders to replace term-limited Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta (Ohio) have emerged, but the race to be the party’s Commerce Committee leader and other factors continue to cloud the subpanel sweepstakes (see 2402290054).
Arizona Corporation Commission staff warned Tuesday that the Arizona Universal Service Fund (AUSF) could exhaust its money unless the commission increases contribution rates. Commissioners could vote March 12 on a staff-proposed order to raise fees. AUSF administrator Solix told commission staff “that although there were enough funds collected to fund the AUSF for January, February and March 2024, Solix has calculated that it's anticipated, by the end of April, the AUSF fund balance would be depleted and that the fund will not be able to pay the Commission-approved and contractual obligations to [Frontier Communications] and Solix, respectively, beginning in May 2024,” said a Tuesday (docket RT-00000H-97-0137). For basic local exchange and wireless service providers that interconnect with the public switched network, staff recommended increasing the monthly surcharge to 3.4 cents per access line, up from 2 cents, and to 34 cents per interconnecting trunk line, up from 20 cents. For intrastate toll service providers, Arizona commission staff recommended increasing the monthly surcharge to 45% of revenue, up from 34.1%. The new rates would start April 1 and would result in a $200,000 fund balance by year-end, a “reasonable level” that would “potentially eliminate the need to revise the AUSF surcharge rates again for 2024,” staff said. Arizona commissioners declined raising AUSF contribution rates in December (see 2312050032). Frontier is the only company receiving AUSF high-cost support.
Spreading high-speed internet will remain a key focus for the California Public Utilities Commission in the years ahead, CPUC President Alice Reynolds told Communications Daily during a wide-ranging Q&A. Reynolds addresses broadband funding, affordability issues, state USF and the FCC’s net neutrality rulemaking in written answers to our questions, lightly edited for length and clarity.
Industry groups welcomed the FCC's inquiry on improving its broadband data collection (BDC) process. The agency sought feedback as part of a report to Congress about data collection and whether tools are needed to improve the data's accuracy (see 2401190071). Comments were posted Tuesday in docket 19-195.
ISPs and industry groups generally supported the FCC's proposal that builds on its Alaska Plan high-cost USF program by transforming it into an Alaska Connect Fund. Reply comments were posted Friday in docket 23-328 (see 2310190056). Some urged that the commission reconsider its eligible telecom carrier (ETC) designation requirement for support recipients and sought a technology-neutral approach.
A coalition of 21 Republican state attorneys general urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Consumers' Research's challenge of the FCC's quarterly USF contribution factor and methodology in an amicus brief posted Thursday (docket 23-743). "Agencies are finding all kinds of creative new ways to grab money and power for themselves lately," the coalition, led by West Virginia AG Patrick Morrisey (R), said. The FCC "extracts billions from American consumers based on a vague statute" and "doesn’t even do the work of setting these rates itself," they argued (see 2401100044). The AGs called the FCC's use of the Universal Service Administrative Co. unconstitutional and a violation of the nondelegation doctrine. "Those that would warn the Court away from reaching these issues are wrong," the group said: "The benefits of the present state of play are overstated." The FCC declined to comment Monday. The agency on Monday petitioned the court to extend until April 3 the March 4 deadline for responding to Consumers' Research's petition, citing a parallel case pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.