The FCC shouldn’t apply an interim cap on the Universal Service Fund high-cost program until it weighs a petition for reconsideration (CD Aug 5 p3) by the Rural Cellular Association and a group of small wireless competitive eligible telecommunications carriers, said the RCA. The RCA sought a stay late Monday, after filing the reconsideration petition Friday, when the interim cap took effect. The wireless CETC group could go to court. Under court rules, the group may file for court relief if the FCC denies the stay, doesn’t act on the motion for stay or denies the reconsideration petition. “If and when this matter reaches a circuit court of appeals,” the RCA said, “the court undoubtedly will have before it data from USAC showing what the Commission’s CETC-only cap actually saved the USF.” If the data show savings below 1 percent “as it does now,” the interim cap “will be greeted by judicial skepticism at best.”

The Rural Cellular Association formally challenged an FCC interim cap on the Universal Service Fund high-cost program, filing a reconsideration petition over the weekend. The group was expected to file a motion for stay on Monday, but hadn’t at our deadline. The reconsideration petition also was signed by small wireless competitive eligible telecommunications carriers. “The high-cost fund ‘emergency’ alleged by the commission is a farce,” said RCA Executive Director Eric Peterson. “The decision to implement the cap is based on inaccurate facts, false assumptions, flawed legal reasoning and ignores Congressional direction and the principle of competitive neutrality.”

AT&T, Alltel, Verizon are among 24 companies questioned on how they spend high-cost universal service fund subsidies, the House Oversight Committee said Monday. The fund needs more oversight, chairman Henry Waxman, D-California, told committee members in a memo Monday. He called that goal consistent with the committee’s “strong interest” in ensuring private sector and government accountability. The committee worries about the size and growth of subsidies, which the FCC said exceeded $6 billion total 2006 to 2008.

PORTLAND, Ore. State regulators Wednesday called for a joint federal-state task force to develop national wireless consumer protection standards enforced by a partnership of federal and state authorities. The resolution, adopted by the board of the National Association of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners, marks a major change in NARUC policy.

SES Americom agreed to continue serving the Navajo Nation until Aug. 1, an SES spokesman told us Tuesday. SES had planned to cut off service to the Navajo Nation on Tuesday (CD July 22 p14), but was persuaded by the FCC to continue serving the tribe, the spokesman said. “The FCC suggested we could be flexible once again,” he said, noting that SES extended service past the end of its contract with OnSat.

Industry and think tank officials argued about U.S. broadband rankings at a Monday FCC en banc hearing in Pittsburgh. Debating how bad off the U.S. is shows “how behind we are,” said Commissioner Michael Copps. Meanwhile, AT&T and other panelists endorsed FCC action against network neutrality violators.

Audio-bridging providers have until Aug. 1 to begin filing FCC Form 499-Q to contribute to the Universal Service Fund, the FCC said last week in a public notice. The Universal Administrative Co. will collect contributions in October. The FCC last month ordered audio-bridging providers to contribute to the USF (CD July 1 p6).

A comprehensive intercarrier-compensation revamp might not be possible by Nov. 5, FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said Wednesday at a Quebec, Canada, conference of the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies. Chairman Kevin Martin has promised a complete overhaul by then (CD July 14 p2). “I'm not sure we're really going to,” Adelstein said, predicting that the work may be broken up. If it is, the FCC should tackle phantom traffic, a “growing problem,” right away, he said.

Technology matters should be more prominent in the presidential campaign, the Information Technology Association of America said at a conference Tuesday. “Technology is really not on the radar screen” of either major candidate, said ITAA President Phil Bond, who challenged Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John McCain, R-Ariz., to go head-to-head in a debate on where they stand. The new president needs to set a pro-technology agenda, he said, but both candidates get an “incomplete” on offering a vision for technology’s role in the U.S. economy.

The FCC needs a long-term overhaul policy for the Universal Service Fund, FCC Commissioner Deborah Tate told an OPASTCO conference Monday in Quebec, Canada. It’s “critical” that a revamp “strikes a balance between the costs of advancing our national telecommunications infrastructure and the costs consumers are willing to bear,” she said. The current USF surcharge on interstate calls is 11.4 percent, she said.