The Obama administration’s Broadband Opportunity Council later this year could help improve wide-ranging government efforts to expand high-speed Internet access to Americans, but it should follow up annually to ensure the initiatives are sustained, panelists said at an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation event Friday. Although the federal government can be a catalyst, localities will have to do much heavy lifting to remove barriers to investment, with the private sector providing most of the capital, they said. The BOC is an inter-agency group assigned by President Barack Obama to make recommendations by Aug. 20 to spur broadband deployment and adoption. Comments to the group are due by June 10.
Two senators made another push for the FCC to act on stand-alone broadband USF support. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., wrote a joint opinion article for the Journal by IJReview, published Thursday, on “5 Things Everyone Should Know About Broadband Access in Rural America.” The lawmakers peppered the piece with videos from the social media service Vine, showcasing brief clips of technologies such as the AOL dial-up process. The piece said that universal access to broadband is important and that the infrastructure investment is expensive but crucial. FCC “rules have failed to keep pace with the changing communications landscape and consumer preferences,” Klobuchar and Thune said. “Outdated rules effectively require rural Americans to pay for a traditional landline -- even if they no longer want one -- in order to get broadband services. These rules particularly disadvantage low-income consumers by putting the price of broadband out of reach unless they pay for additional, duplicative landline phone service.” They said developing a stand-alone broadband support mechanism is a “common-sense fix.” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has told Congress he’s on track to develop such a fix by year’s end. Thune and Klobuchar led a letter this year with dozens of colleagues backing stand-alone broadband (see 1505120041).
One House Republican doesn’t anticipate granting the FCC budget request increase of roughly $50 million for FY 2016. “That’s looking less likely,” Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., told us of the agency’s request. “We’ll probably go to our subcommittee sometime after the break, in early June, so we’ll mark our bill up probably middle of June, that kind of thing. So we’ll know more then.”
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a proposal for reforming the $1.7 billion USF Lifeline program, providing limited funding for broadband (see 1505270048). In an apparent peace offering to Republicans concerned about an expanding program, FCC officials said the commission will seek comment on whether this is the right time to consider a cap on the program's size. FCC officials said Thursday that many new Lifeline customers are wireless, but the rules don't discriminate against wireline service. Wheeler is, as some predicted, seeking a vote at the FCC’s June 18 meeting (see 1505010051). House Republicans signaled resistance to any proposal to expand the program.
The FCC will offer clarity in a declaratory ruling on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and how TCPA is to be applied. The ruling is to be circulated for a vote at the agency’s June 18 meeting, commission officials said Wednesday. Some have been seeking clarity on TCPA enforcement (see 1505210034). Meanwhile, it remains unclear whether the FCC will also take up Lifeline reform at the meeting. Industry lawyers said a proposal on the USF program still seems likely. More will be known Thursday, the due date for Chairman Tom Wheeler to circulate items for the June open meeting.
Rural telco representatives “reached agreement” on various aspects of a plan to overhaul high-cost USF support for rate-of-return carriers, but were still seeking to “narrow or overcome” differences in some areas and develop more specific proposals in other areas, said a Friday ex parte filing in docket 10-90 by WTA about a meeting with FCC officials last week. WTA and other rural representatives had agreed to chart a “basic two-path approach composed of: (1) updates to existing mechanisms; and (2) a Model-Based Path,” said the WTA filing, which spelled out further areas of agreement and remaining disagreement.
The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment on a proposed eligible services list for schools and libraries participating in the USF E-rate program for the funding year starting July 1, 2016, said a public notice in Friday's Daily Digest. Among the changes mandated by the December E-rate order are expanded use of services lighting up dark fiber, the notice said. Comments are due June 22, replies July 6.
FCC E-rate changes are working, but this isn't the time for the agency to stop moving forward, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition in a speech Friday. The group understands “E-rate modernization was about far more than just adopting speed targets and revamping a budget,” Clyburn said in written remarks. “I am optimistic, because the FCC remains focused on its objective of ensuring access to world-class digital learning tools -- an objective shared by SHLB and the education community.” Clyburn asked attendees to provide plenty of feedback about how the revisions are working in practice. Also “tell us what we are doing right, because positive feedback is welcome as well,” she said. Clyburn also repeated calls for similar overhaul of the USF Lifeline program. The FCC isn't meeting a congressional mandate to ensure that all Americans, including those with low incomes and in rural and high-cost areas, have access to advanced telecom and information services at affordable prices, Clyburn said. “Lifeline, the only universal service program focused on bridging the affordability gap, remains stuck in an era where leg warmers, stretch stirrup pants, and scrunchies were the fashion craze, and talking on our home telephone or sending a letter through the mail were the main means of communicating.” Lifeline should help people build a better life, she said. The program's goal should be “for it to work so effectively that current subscribers will no longer need Lifeline, or any other federal benefits program,” she said. Industry and FCC officials have predicted Lifeline changes could headline the agency’s June 18 open meeting (see 1505010051). Chairman Tom Wheeler is to circulate draft orders for that meeting Thursday. Wireline Bureau Chief Julie Veach said in a blog post Friday that the FCC has drawn some important lessons from its Low Income Broadband Pilot Program, including lessons for possible Lifeline changes. Among the lessons is that consumers “respond well to having a choice of plans” and all households don’t have the same needs for “data speeds, usage amounts, service type and devices,” Veach wrote. Price matters, even if it is not the only barrier to adoption, and carriers “aren’t necessarily the best” at addressing these barriers, especially “lack of digital literacy and relevance to one's life,” Veach said. There is no “silver bullet,” she said. “While the pilots were focused on different approaches for adoption, let's be clear that Lifeline is focused on ensuring services are affordable, not to solve the broadband adoption challenge,” she said. “As the Commission moves forward to consider how to restructure the Lifeline program for the digital age, the pilot report will help provide useful data for the Commission and public to consider.” The FCC also released the report on the pilot program Friday.
NCTA backs FCC efforts to repurpose USF low-income money to promote broadband adoption by low-income consumers, the association said executives told Office of Strategic Planning Chief Jonathan Chambers and Wireline Bureau officials. Potential barriers are an "overly burdensome" eligible telecom carrier designation process "that could preclude broadband providers from participating in a Lifeline universal service program for broadband," said NCTA in a Wednesday filing in docket 12-23. It said cable operator programs for low-cost broadband to low-income consumers include: Bright House Networks, Cox Communications, Eagle Communications, Mediacom and Suddenlink's Connect2Compete; Comcast's Internet Essentials; and Midcontinent’s Broadband Lifeline Assistance program. Commissioners may vote on a Lifeline reform NPRM at their June 18 meeting (see 1505010051).
The FCC has much left to do to overhaul USF funding and intercarrier compensation (ICC), panelists said at an FCBA seminar Wednesday on reforms since the 2010 National Broadband Plan (NBP). High-cost USF support for generally small, rural rate-of-return carriers and Lifeline USF await major changes, they said. Overhaul of high-cost support for larger price cap carriers and E-rate support for schools and libraries are further along, but questions remain; and numerous ICC disputes continue to bubble, panelists said.