Expect to see draft changes to Oklahoma's USF statute by Oct. 18, OUSF Administrator Mark Argenbright told stakeholders at a virtual meeting Monday. Parties should file proposed language by Sept. 20 with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission Public Utilities Division, he said. Argenbright said he expects to convene an Oct. 26 meeting to discuss changes, which he would then present to commissioners possibly on Nov. 3.

The FCC should reallocate full-time equivalents associated with the USF so broadcasters no longer fund them with their regulatory fees, said NAB in calls with the Office of Managing Director Friday and Monday, said an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 22-223. “Broadcasters should not be forced to pay more than $6.5 million in additional fees this year to pay for costs associated with the USF FTEs,” the filing said. If the FCC doesn’t reclassify the FTEs, it should reclassify the FTEs assigned to the Media Bureau that the agency has said are pursuing broadband policy, NAB said. “At a minimum, if 63% of Media Bureau FTEs are working on broadband issues, these FTEs cannot be working on issues pertaining to broadcasters and therefore broadcasters should be responsible for a much smaller portion of the Media Bureau’s overall fee allocation.”

A state court rejected a Texas Public Utility Commission appeal of a trial court’s temporary injunction against the PUC for not fully funding Texas USF (TUSF). The 3rd Texas District Court of Appeals in Austin ruled Wednesday in favor of appellee AMA TechTel, a CLEC, for similar reasons that the court gave in a June 30 decision supporting Texas Telephone Association (TTA) and other RLECs in a similar case (see 2207010045). Earlier in the AMA case, the state appeals court required the PUC to pay the CLEC the full amount of state USF support it was owed since Dec. 1. "While the present case appears before us in a different procedural posture from that in TTA, the application of legal principles to the pleaded and undisputed facts is substantively the same and our analysis and holdings are largely dictated by that opinion,” Justice Thomas Baker wrote Wednesday. As in the June 30 opinion, state law and PUC regulations preclude the state commission from underfunding TUSF, said Baker: The PUC must pay monthly support amounts. Like the RLEC group, AMA sufficiently pleaded a Texas Administrative Procedure Act claim, he said. The court overruled the PUC's contention that AMA failed to exhaust administrative remedies before bringing the APA challenge. AMA sufficiently pleaded a viable regulatory takings claim and the trial court didn't abuse its discretion when it granted temporary injunctive relief to AMA, he said. "It was the PUC Parties’ decision to amend the Solix contract and refuse to fund the TUSF that altered the parties’ relationship,” so “the status quo is the relationship of the parties prior to the PUC Parties’ challenged actions,” wrote Baker. “We reject the premise implicit in the PUC Parties’ contention that a party may act unlawfully and then claim that the impacts of that unlawful behavior cannot be remedied or mitigated pending a trial on the merits.” Justices Melissa Goodwin and Gisela Triana, the judge who wrote the TTA decision, joined Baker in Wednesday’s opinion. Following the earlier court actions, Texas commissioners Aug. 1 raised the revenue-based TUSF surcharge to 24% from 3.3% (see 2207140060). The Texas PUC and AMA didn’t comment.

The FCC rejected LTD Broadband and Starlink's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction long-form applications Wednesday, citing a "failure to demonstrate that the providers could deliver the promised service." LTD was the largest winning bidder, preliminarily bidding about $1.3 billion to serve 528,088 locations in 15 states (see 2012070039). Starlink's preliminary award was about $885.5 million.

Industry sought improved coordination and transparency through the FCC, USDA and NTIA’s interagency agreement established under the Broadband Interagency Coordination Act of 2020. Some asked the agencies to make the shared information available publicly and to increase reliance on the FCC’s maps when coordinating broadband programs, in comments posted Tuesday in docket 22-251.

The FCC should ensure that regulatory fees “more meaningfully reflect the benefits provided to fee payors,” said NAB in calls Tuesday with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr, according to an ex parte filing posted in docket 22-223 Wednesday. The agency should exempt broadcasters from paying for work on aspects of the USF, the filing said. The FCC “has acknowledged that broadcasters do not benefit from the Commission’s Universal Service Fund (USF) activities,” NAB said.

The Oregon Public Utility Commission agreed to state USF rules updating rules on calculation and disbursements to eligible telecom carriers. Commissioners voted 3-0 Tuesday to adopt a staff recommendation to proceed with adopting a CostQuest model, despite apprehension by some telecom groups in docket AR 649 (see 2207200017). Chair Megan Decker said the action recognizes “the continued uncertainty and the stress … on stakeholders that depend on the OUSF” but added she is sure the commission can “arrive at something reasonable” and flexible. The PUC can make “surgical tweaks” later if needed, Decker said at the livestreamed meeting. Commissioner Letha Tawney likes the transparency that using a cost model will provide, she said. The model will assist but won’t be the final word in setting OUSF benchmarks, she said. Commissioner Mark Thompson doesn’t think the PUC is on the wrong path even with outstanding questions, he said.

Nebraska USF (NUSF) accountability needs improvement, said Nebraska Public Service Commission member Crystal Rhoades at a livestreamed meeting Tuesday. The PSC’s lone Democrat cast the only vote against an order, adopted 4-1, to release a list of qualified bidders for the commission’s reverse auction (docket NUSF-131). With the auction, the PSC seeks to expand 100 Mbps symmetrical broadband using $13 million of redistributed NUSF support. Rhoades said she generally agreed with the proposed order’s recommendations but couldn’t support it because it wasn’t clear to her how evaluations were made, by whom and if they were consistent across applications. “I have a lot of concerns about this agency continuing to issue funding without having concrete processes that are transparent and that are followed every time without exception,” the commissioner said. "We leave ourselves vulnerable to all kinds of gamesmanship.” Rhoades called for overarching changes. “We've got some real process problems and accountability problems with this NUSF fund -- and we have for a long time -- and I think we need to get serious about correcting it."

Incompas asked the FCC to create an additional layer on its forthcoming broadband maps that shows "which areas have received broadband funding for network deployment," said an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 21-476. It could help determine areas that may still need funding and whether adjustments to high-cost programs are necessary "before committing new funding," Incompas said in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr. The group also met with an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, asking the FCC to include broadband internet access service (BIAS) revenues in the USF contribution base. The Information Technology Industry Council also met with an aide to Carr regarding contribution reform. The group backed refreshing the record in the FCC's contribution methodology proceeding to consider whether BIAS revenue should be assessed.

The Missouri Public Service Commission will continue suspending state USF assessments for the rest of the year, the PSC said Friday. Commissioners agreed 5-0 to the order in docket TO-2019-0346. The USF surcharge will return at a rate of 0.15% Jan. 1, it said. The PSC first suspended the rate Jan. 1, 2020, and the freeze had been set to expire Sept. 30. The commission had considered raising monthly state USF support for voice-only Lifeline services to $24 last year from $18.75 if the FCC stopped paying $5.25, but the FCC paused phasedown until Dec. 1 this year (see 2111050058). Meanwhile, the Wyoming Public Service Commission plans to vote Tuesday on a proposal (docket 90072-49-XO-22) to keep the state USF surcharge at 2.7% for the fiscal year starting July 1, said a Thursday agenda. In an attached May 24 memo, Wyoming USF Manager Melisa Mizel recommended paying monthly distributions of $11,394.70 to All West Communications, Chugwater Telephone, Lumen, Silver Star Telephone and Union Telephone.