The rate-of-return regulated rural ILEC group with an FCC plan for broadband USF (CD June 25 p17, June 25 p14) includes about a dozen such companies with fewer than 10,000 access lines each, said industry officials involved with the Small Company Coalition in emails to us Tuesday and Wednesday. Some previous filings by the group hadn’t identified members of the coalition, which seeks among other things broadband access for rural and urban areas on similar conditions, rates and terms within USF budget parameters. ILEC members include Citizens Telephone of Kecksburg in Pennsylvania and Sacred Wind Communications in New Mexico. Associate coalition members include Alexicon Telecommunications Consulting, where Principal Doug Kitsch is involved with the effort, the Blooston Mordkofsky law firm and Calix Networks, which makes broadband systems, said the materials provided by Kitsch, a consultant to the group, and Jim Kail, on the coalition’s executive committee and the CEO of Pennsylvania ILECs including the Laurel Highland telco.
A decision by the Universal Service Administrative Co. against the Peerless Network was reversed by an FCC Wireline Bureau order (http://bit.ly/1pKgF7M) released in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. USAC had rejected Peerless’ revised May 2013 FCC Form 499-Q because it was filed outside the 45-day deadline for filing revisions, the order said. A request meanwhile by American Cyber Corp., Coleman Enterprises, Inmark, Lotel and Protel Advantage for reconsideration of a 2007 bureau order was granted by the bureau in an order (http://bit.ly/1q5mmPA). The bureau had found the companies were resellers of telecom services, and were obligated to contribute to the USF, but the bureau overlooked facts that showed the companies were telemarketers, not resellers, the order said.
A group of rate-of-return regulated rural local exchange carriers wants broadband access for rural and urban areas on similar conditions, rates and terms within USF budget parameters, it told the FCC. The Small Company Coalition, which has described itself as a national group of rural telecom and broadband providers (http://bit.ly/1nC5EkH), asked the agency to avoid unfunded mandates or retroactive rulemaking. It said “voice traffic will never go away completely,” as it declines at a 5-15 percent rate annually and “networks are not being used less, but instead are being used more than ever,” in an attachment (http://bit.ly/1jLisUo) to a coalition letter to the commission posted Monday in docket 10-90 (http://bit.ly/1o08FxY). “IP and bandwidth is replacing TDM and voice traffic at an alarming rate.” The coalition said its proposal would work with one from ITTA, a group of mid-sized telcos, and rate-of-return companies could choose which model works best. The coalition said it has “refined and improved” its plan after getting feedback from industry stakeholders and to reflect issues raised in the FCC Connect America Fund order (CD June 12 p7). The materials didn’t identify the members of the coalition.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is trying to line up votes in favor of E-rate reform for action at the agency’s July 11 open meeting. It’s unclear whether Wheeler will be able to get Republican support for the changes, dedicating $1 billion to Wi-Fi in 2015, industry and agency officials said Tuesday. To that end, Wheeler is emphasizing that his proposal does not increase the E-rate budget, but relies on $2 billion commission staff recently found has been set aside for E-rate but never spent.
The FCC net neutrality rulemaking and recent policies are designed to provide certainty on what the commission will allow, while leaving room for case-by-case flexibility, said General Counsel Jonathan Sallet at an FCBA Continuing Legal Education (CLE) program Monday. Such rules are required to allow the commission to regulate “in a time of rapid innovation,” he said. Along with the thinking behind recent FCC rules, the event included a rundown on FCC court cases of the past year, especially the Verizon v. FCC net neutrality case and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the FCC 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order.
A draft E-rate order attempts to tackle the “Wi-Fi gap” in schools and libraries, Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a blog post Friday (http://fcc.us/1w7OuSm). He said he circulated the order Friday, for a vote at the July 11 FCC meeting, as expected (CD June 12 p1). The plan commits $1 billion toward Wi-Fi in 2015, with which the agency expects to connect more than 10 million students across the country, officials said. Another $1 billion will go toward Wi-Fi in 2016, with “predictable” support in future years, a senior official told reporters on a conference call on condition of anonymity Friday. That money, in addition to the current $2.4 billion E-rate budget, comes from $2 billion recently found unspent (CD Feb 4 p7).
If the FCC increases from 4 Mbps to 10 Mbps the minimum broadband speeds for recipients of high-cost USF funds, 4.7 million locations would be eligible for support, said the Wireline Bureau in a public notice Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1sogvXp). That’s an increase from the 4.25 million locations eligible under the lower speed threshold, the bureau said. Some 3.6 million locations would count as “unserved” by 10 Mbps/768 kbps, compared with 2.7 million unserved by 3 Mbps/768 kbps, it said. The results were produced using version 4.1.1 of the Connect America Cost Model. Detailed results and a list of eligible census blocks are at http://fcc.us/18RrTfQ. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has circulated a notice of inquiry asking about increasing the minimum download speeds to 10 Mbps, for purposes of determining whether ISP services are broadband (CD June 4 p1).
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai drew a line in the sand Wednesday: “I will not support any reform plan that boosts E-rate’s budget,” he told a packed ballroom at an FCBA luncheon. Reforms in the way the current E-rate budget is spent will make the currently allocated budget stretch further, he said. Pai also lamented what he called a partisan atmosphere at FCC headquarters. “No one party has a monopoly on wisdom,” he said.
CTIA’s top priority is spectrum “and it always will be,” new President Meredith Baker told reporters Tuesday. A former FCC commissioner and acting NTIA administrator, Baker noted that Tuesday was only her 12th day on the job since she took over from Steve Largent. CTIA will devote all the resources necessary to “successfully shift spectrum to mobile broadband use in the years to come,” she said.
The Competitive Carriers Association slammed the FCC Connect America Fund order, after it was released Tuesday night. (See related report above in this issue.) CCA President Steve Berry said in a written statement that the order is biased against wireless. “Many smaller carriers depend on USF support to provide mobile services in the most costly areas” of the U.S., he said. “Without it, they may not survive and consumers will not have wireless services in many areas. The Order does absolutely nothing to promote or even preserve competition."