NARUC’s Washington advocacy arm will eye all IP transition and broader FCC developments very closely, its new head told us. State regulators will also undoubtedly be watching what happens with any Communications Act update, a process that is largely welcomed, multiple commissioners told us, all stressing the need for a state role. Michigan Public Service Commission member Greg White was named chairman of the Washington Action Program group of commissioners last week and laid out plans for the group, which tracks all Capitol Hill and federal agency happenings in Washington for NARUC.
Accuracy of state maps of broadband availability, as oversight shifts to the FCC from NTIA, is generally considered good. And any issues are on very small geographic levels, in a project that’s more comprehensive than anything ever amalgamated in the U.S. That’s according to stakeholders in interviews Thursday. The night before, government, public interest and city officials discussed the national broadband map, as data collection funding is ending for all states, U.S. territories and the District of Columbia for maps that some said will be used to parcel out $1.75 billion a year of USF-for-broadband money. Some have criticized accuracy, while acknowledging improvements since the National Broadband Map went online in February 2011 (CD Jan 10/13 p5).
The FCC is looking for economists versed in microeconomics, econometrics and industrial organization theory. The agency is likely trying to beef up its team in advance of some mathematically complex actions it’s expected to take this year, such as retooling some USF cost models, and analyzing the state of the special access market, said economists in interviews. The real question, they say, is whether the new hires will be expected to justify decisions the agency has already made, or actually drive the decision-making process.
State regulators want their values to be part of any Communications Act updates that the House Commerce Committee works on. In early December, Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., announced intentions for white papers and hearings on the broader Telecom Act updates in 2014 and legislation to be introduced in 2015 (CD Dec 4 p1). Two key NARUC telecom commissioners and its general counsel told us Friday it’s the right time to reexamine the Communications Act and they want states to be a part of the conversation.
Adak Eagle Enterprises and its subsidiary, Windy City Cellular, met with an aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Monday to ask the commission to grant its petition for waiver of the per-line monthly caps on high-cost universal service support, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1jmUWlk). “The companies have embodied the very purpose of universal service by working hard and reinvesting USF support to maintain essential services -- including the only reliable 911 service, the only broadband service, the only wireline service, and the most comprehensive wireless service -- for residents, government agencies, business, and workers on Adak Island -- one of the most remote areas of the United States,” said the Alaskan carriers. The Wireline and Wireless bureaus’ rejection of the waiver request makes no sense “from a legal, policy, or fiscal perspective,” they said. “AEE and WCC are hopeful that the Chairman will promptly correct course before their interim relief expires in two weeks and the companies are forced into bankruptcy."
Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, introduced telecom and broadcasting bills in the last two weeks, both referred to the Senate Commerce Committee. On Wednesday, he introduced the Rural Broadband Investment Act of 2013, S-1858. The bill proposes to end “well-documented flaws in the FCC’s 2011 Universal Service Transformation Order that caused financial burdens to small- and mid-size communications carriers operating in rural areas,” Begich’s office said, slamming the USF’s quantile regression analysis as “questionable statistical analysis.” His Thursday press release included statements of support from Greg Berberich, CEO of the Matanuska Telephone Association, and Alaska Telephone Association Executive Director Jim Rowe. Begich points to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s recent announcement that he may end the quantile regression analysis, but Rowe said the “legislation is important to rural telecommunication companies because it not only addresses the QRA, but also two other important provisions within the transformation order which are the safety net additive and waivers.” According to a summary of the bill provided to media, the legislation creates a timeline for the FCC to develop an order “to ensure USF reforms are achieved in a manner that is both consistent with the nation’s universal service objectives and fosters those objectives.” Under the bill’s proposal, quantile regression analysis would be halted, and on an interim basis, “at a level equal to the combined operating and capital expenses the carrier had for calendar year 2011 adjusted for any revisions resulting from restoration of the Safety Net Additive or FCC action on a waiver petition,” Begich’s office said. The FCC would also have to file qualitative and quantitative analyses for the Senate and House Commerce Committees within 60 days of the bill’s enactment “assessing the amount of USF necessary to meet the nation’s universal service objectives over the next ten years and a specific analysis identifying the unique circumstances and resulting high cost fund support needed to provide and maintain universal service in Alaska and on Tribal Lands,” it said. On Dec. 12, Begich introduced S-1819, which would amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act “to provide eligibility for public broadcasting facilities to receive certain disaster assistance, and for other purposes,” according to its long bill title. Neither bill has cosponsors.
The impending end of the USF quantile regression analysis, disclosed by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler while being questioned at Thursday’s House Communications Subcommittee hearing, came as a shock to industry members who had long been urging QRA’s elimination. Wheeler told Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., he had asked the bureau to draft an order “to eliminate the QRA and return to the high-cost loop support model” (CD Dec 13 p4). There’s no word from the Wireline Bureau about what the replacement will look like, but many industry officials we interviewed were hoping for a predictable model based on plant depreciation.
Hill pressure on the idea of cellphone conversation on airplanes while in-flight escalated Thursday as all five FCC commissioners faced the House Communications Subcommittee, hours before the agency took up an item to propose allowing such conversation from a technical perspective (see separate report in this issue). At the hearing, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler defended the proposal and said he’s talked with others in government about what will happen next. Members of both houses of Congress have raised the controversial issue, and the U.S. Department of Transportation is kicking off a process that may ban voice calls on planes, officials said.
Rural ILECs urged the Pennsylvania House Consumer Affairs Committee to eliminate carrier-of-last-resort (COLR) obligations and revise the state Universal Service Fund, at a hearing Thursday. CenturyLink, Frontier and Windstream were among the companies whose executives testified on House Bill 1608 at the hearing, sponsored by Rep. Warren Kampf (R). The committee also heard testimony from AT&T, AARP and the 60 Plus Association. This hearing was the continuation of one last month (CD Nov 22 p14) where Verizon, two Pennsylvania public utility commissioners and the state’s consumer advocate testified.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler backs a draft proposal to authorize cellphone use on airplanes in-flight, in prepared testimony for a Thursday House Communications Subcommittee oversight hearing. “I do not want the person in the seat next to me yapping at 35,000 feet any more than anyone else,” Wheeler plans to tell Congress (http://1.usa.gov/1bWwJOQ). “But we are not the Federal Courtesy Commission.”