A broad state role is critical to modernize and streamline Universal Service and Intercarrier Compensation policies, state members of the Federal-State USF Joint Board told an FCC workshop Thursday. Speakers debated proposed changes in fund size.

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."

Good oversight doesn’t include “wholesale attacks against agencies … for political purposes,” House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., told reporters Thursday. She rejected amendments to the Continuing Resolution -- debated Thursday -- that would affect FCC operations. Eshoo said at a media briefing that her priorities for this Congress include spectrum reform, overhaul of the Universal Service Fund and building a public safety wireless broadband network.

The FCC will structure reverse auctions carefully so all carriers will have a shot at federal funding for broadband, Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett assured state regulators at the NARUC meeting Tuesday. “The intent is to be neutral,” she said. The commission’s recent rulemaking on the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation asks broad questions about reverse auctions but is essentially neutral about implementation -- focusing on census blocs, for instance, instead of geographic alignment, Gillett said.

The time may finally be right for an overhaul of the Universal Service Fund and of intercarrier compensation, said FCC Commissioner Michael Copps. He’s hopeful a “method” will be found to turn things like the rulemaking notice, approved by commissioners at last week’s monthly meeting, into “momentum” for making fixes to update the rules for the broadband age, he told us in a Q-and-A after his FCBA luncheon speech. “I think we've teed up an item that really raises all the issues,” he said, saying the regulator should hold stakeholder hearings on the issue. Copps used the speech to defend public broadcasting against Republican legislators’ efforts to cut funding and to urge the FCC and Chairman Julius Genachowski to do more to promote media diversity.

House Republicans will try to use the Continuing Resolution to stop the FCC from acting on its net neutrality order. In a speech Tuesday, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said he filed an amendment prohibiting the FCC from spending any money to implement the rule. Also at the NARUC meeting, Walden said he’s considering legislation to overhaul FCC process. He questioned the White House’s FY 2012 budget estimate for money that could be raised by voluntary incentive spectrum auctions.

Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., plans to reintroduce her Universal Service Fund bill the week of March 1, after the Presidents’ Day recess, a spokeswoman said Monday. She said Matsui plans to discuss the bill at Wednesday’s House Communications Subcommittee hearing. The measure would create a USF Lifeline program to subsidize broadband service for low-income Americans. The bill isn’t directly tied to net neutrality, the hearing’s topic, but is part of the “broader discussion” about expanding Internet access, the spokeswoman said.

The FCC’s failure to deal with VoIP endangers the commission’s broader Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime reforms, said Windstream Vice President for Federal Government Affairs Eric Einhorn Monday. The commission’s rulemaking notice isn’t definitive about VoIP traffic, he said at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ winter meeting, and without clarity nagging questions “could unravel the system before we even get to intercarrier compensation reform.” Einhorn was part of a panel on USF/intercarrier comp reform.

The Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance is turning to Genevieve Morelli as president to help beef up its membership and lead the association through the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation overhauls, the group said Monday. Corporate acquisitions including Windstream-Iowa Telecom, CenturyLink-Embarq and the pending CenturyLink-Qwest deal are cutting into the association’s membership, said board Chairman Matthew Dosch.

The FCC may have punted on contribution overhaul in its Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation rulemaking notice (CD Feb 9 p1), but some changes it proposes will lead to increased calls for taking up contributions sooner rather than later, said Bingham telecom lawyer Andy Lipman. The notice, approved 5-0 Tuesday, makes it clear that the commission wants to ease intercarrier compensation payments down, he said. “In part, that’s going to be made up with additional USF funding, which will in turn lead to more pressure on the fund, which in turn will create more pressure for contribution reform.”