Valley Telephone Cooperative said it’s “deeply concerned about a framework that caps investment in our future rural infrastructure and eliminates reimbursement for expenses already incurred or committed to in order to provide quality, state-of-art technologies to rural businesses and residential customers.” The telco wrote the FCC in support of a petition by Dell Telephone Cooperative for limited waiver of certain high-cost universal service rules, including the cap of $250 per line per month, the rule limiting reimbursable expenses related to high-cost loop support (HCLS), and the extended limits on recovery of corporate operations expenses applied to HCLS and interstate common line support (http://xrl.us/bni6oy). “The demographics of Dell, like VTCI, require large sums of USF per customer to provide and maintain the services each rural American has had a right to receive since the Communications Act of 1934,” the telco wrote. “VTCI recommends swift action by the FCC approving the limited waiver requests."

The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association has concerns about the transparency, accuracy and predictability of regression analysis-based caps on USF support, association officials told FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Wednesday, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bni6ni). NTCA asked the commission to address statistical and data-related issues on the caps, and conduct or release the results of any testing to assess their validity and volatility. “Making the effort to more properly calibrate and test the caps should have minimal, if any, impact on the Commission’s budgetary objectives, given that the Wireline Competition Bureau itself has noted that the caps are anticipated to have at most a $10 million per year net ‘budget’ savings impact” once fully implemented in 2014, NTCA said.

Charter Communications, in bankruptcy three years ago, is impressing Wall Street with a growing subscriber base and favorable positioning against competitors under its third CEO in two years. That’s setting up a revival that could enable it to expand its broadband network and boost its presence in Washington, D.C., industry and company officials told us. A question is whether Washington could help fuel growth for Charter through money from the FCC’s new USF for broadband fund, industry officials said.

Assessing USF contributions on special access services purchased by competitive LECs and used as an input to broadband Internet access services violates the principle of competitive neutrality, counsel for tw telecom told an adviser to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel (http://xrl.us/bniz8n). This is because no USF contribution is assessed where a firm provides broadband Internet access using its own facilities, or unbundled network elements, the CLEC said.

Telcos that offer local phone service for less than $10 per month will see their high-cost loop and high-cost model support reduced by the difference between $10 and what they charge, the FCC said Tuesday. A report by the Universal Service Administrative Co. showed 123 study areas with rate floor reductions, with a total annualized reduction at about $1.4 million. The commission adopted the rule to reduce high-cost support for incumbent eligible telecom carriers where end-user rates aren’t high enough in its 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order. The commission said at the time that the purpose of the USF is to help make rural rates reasonably comparable to urban rates, not to subsidize artificially low rates. “Our reforms make universal service fair for all consumers, protecting the consumers and small businesses who pay into the fund while ensuring that rural areas have access to affordable voice and broadband service,” an FCC spokesman said.

The FCC must urgently address statistical and data-related issues on the transparency, accuracy and predictability of regression analysis-based caps on USF support, NTCA executives told Chairman Julius Genachowski, Wireless Bureau Chief Julie Veach, and other commission officials (http://xrl.us/bniu7c). The association also urged the commission to do testing to assess the caps’ validity and volatility, and to make the results public. The objective of ensuring next-generation innovation through sustainable access to broadband throughout America “is frustrated in the absence of clear and well-tested ‘business rules’ that provide sufficient support and enable network operators to understand with a reasonable degree of certainty what investments and operations will indeed be recoverable (or unrecoverable) through USF support prospectively,” NTCA’s ex parte filing said.

The FCC Wireline Bureau denied a NASUCA request for a 30-day extension to file reply comments on USF contribution reform (http://xrl.us/bniajp). The association had sought the extension “to review and study initial comments and potentially to formulate thoughtful reply comments.” The bureau said the circumstances presented don’t warrant a delay.

The FCC will no longer provide a courtesy notice to delinquent debtors who owe money to the USF before transferring the accounts to collection, a public notice said (http://xrl.us/bniais). The change will result in a “more efficient and effective method for the collection of debts owed to the commission,” the notice said.

Allband got a three-year waiver of a new FCC rule limiting per-line USF support to $250 a month, in an order released by the Wireline Bureau Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bniaq3). The bureau said a limited waiver was necessary to ensure that consumers in the area would continue to receive voice service where there’s no terrestrial alternative. By granting Allband’s request, the bureau said it hoped “to provide it additional time to take cost-cutting and revenue-enhancing actions in order to improve its financial position and lessen its dependence on high-cost universal service support.” This is the first waiver granted in the “support reductions” category.

All three of this summer’s NARUC telecom resolutions passed the association’s telecom committee unanimously Tuesday. The resolutions will preserve state authority to tax and charge VoIP providers for state USF funds, relay service and E-911; urge the FCC to continue pursuing rural call termination issues and enforcing penalties against violators; and question the agency’s use of what the resolution says is an “arbitrary and capricious” methodology of determining USF funds. The resolution on the FCC’s methodology proved the most controversial, and faced much debate and revision in both the telecom subcommittee and committee. USTelecom voiced multiple objections based on feared delays. Objectors feared delays would result from a resolution provision demanding the FCC refer to the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service for many of its decisions (CD July 25 p8). “The FCC needs to get this [USF fund] model right,” said California Public Utilities Commissioner Catherine Sandoval. Resolution sponsor Commissioner Larry Landis of Indiana discussed USTelecom’s concerns at the Tuesday vote and said last-minute revisions had led the organization to be “satisfied” with the changes, which “may assuage the concerns of USTelecom if not all of their members.” The telecom committee clapped upon passing this third controversial resolution. Telecom Committee Chairman and Vermont Public Service Board Commissioner John Burke said voting was “smoother than usual” given the unanimity of all three votes.