FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said work on the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum is moving forward as well as could be expected. Genachowski is pleased the agency has launched a critical debate headed into an auction that could start as early as next year, he said in an interview Friday as he prepared to leave the commission. Genachowski, a friend of President Barack Obama, chaired the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Policy Working Group during the 2008 Obama presidential campaign, and has been on the job since June 2009.
Adak Eagle Enterprises and its subsidiary Windy City Cellular submitted their long-term plan to transition “as close to the $250 per line monthly cap on high-cost USF support as possible” (http://bit.ly/12ev5iH). The companies have sought waivers of some of the caps on high-cost USF support, without which they say operations would become unsustainable (CD Sept 19 p10). Adak and Windy City’s plan reflects several “assumptions,” the companies said, including high-cost support for Adak being maintained at its current interim relief levels, and high-cost support for Windy City being maintained at 70 percent of its 2011 levels. The actual transition plan was redacted in the publicly filed version. “The companies remain committed to operating as efficiently as possible in order to continue providing essential service to Adak Island, one of the most remote areas in the country,” they said.
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell leaves office expressing some concerns about work left undone, especially on rules for an incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum and media ownership reform. McDowell, a commissioner since 2006, was a surprise choice when nominated, but was viewed as a top candidate for chairman if Mitt Romney was elected president last year. Like Chairman Julius Genachowski he plans to leave Friday, leaving behind a 2-1 commission. McDowell said Tuesday his first stop will be the Hudson Institute’s Center for Economics of the Internet, where he will be a visiting fellow.
The FCC Wireline Bureau denied a petition from Sandwich Isles Communications for a waiver of certain USF and intercarrier compensation rules, said a Friday order signed by bureau Chief Julie Veach (http://bit.ly/15VqdVZ). The company “failed to show good cause for a waiver at this time,” the bureau said. A waiver would “allow it to retain a number of significant and wasteful expenses, totaling many millions of dollars, including significant payments to a number of affiliated and closely-related companies,” the order said. “Indeed, Sandwich Isles’ corporate expenses are 623 percent greater than the average for companies of similar size with the highest corporate operations expenses.” The company could restructure its operations and file a new waiver petition, the bureau said. Sandwich Isles had asked for a 10-year waiver of the FCC’s $250 per line per month cap on high-cost universal service support, the bureau said.
Reps. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Tim Griffin, R-Ark., told the FCC they were “deeply concerned” about what they called the agency’s “mismanagement” of the USF Lifeline fund, in a letter made public on Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/11QLVnt). Blackburn and Griffin asked why the commission has failed to create an eligibility database that would help “root out ineligible participants.” They also asked the FCC to say whether the alleged Boston Marathon bombers received benefits from the Lifeline program. “If the FCC isn’t able to conclusively state whether the alleged Boston Marathon bombers received Lifeline benefits, we believe the program should be frozen until there are mechanisms in place to do so,” the letter said.
Colorado is looking at multiple bills that would limit how the state regulates Internet Protocol-enabled services. One also encourages broadband deployment in under- and unserved areas. Legislators in the Colorado Senate last week introduced what they call the Rural Telecom Act of 2013, Senate Bill 287, referred to the Senate floor. That bill would exempt VoIP and IP services from the Colorado Public Utilities Commission regulation while making clear what it wouldn’t affect, such as the PUC’s “authority to regulate the implementation and provision of next-generation 911 service” (http://bit.ly/13SoU5p). The bill also authorizes the PUC to take money from the state USF to help in broadband deployment. It makes clear that the state policy toward ensuring universal service includes access to broadband, according to the text. There’s another Colorado bill, House Bill 1255, which would also exempt VoIP and IP services from PUC oversight. It passed the Colorado House in mid-April and is pending before the Senate.
The availability of relief under a Texas state law “should not impact the company’s eligibility for a waiver of the Commission’s universal service reforms,” a Dell Telephone attorney told aides to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai Tuesday, said an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/100mbXs). The Wireline Bureau Wednesday denied without prejudice Dell’s petition for a waiver of several new USF rules because Dell’s home state provided its own relief (CD May 1 p8). “The availability of relief under state law should not impact the company’s eligibility for a waiver of the Commission’s universal service reforms,” the telco said. It also noted “concern” about waiting almost a year to reject Dell’s petition, when the Texas law permitting state relief was on the books since 2005. Dell believes it met the “very high standard” adopted by the FCC to obtain federal relief, General Manager Denny Bergstrom told us. But now, rural carriers in Texas need to navigate a “new hurdle” in order to stay in business, he said. “The FCC never indicated in its USF reform orders or prior waiver decisions that a waiver was conditioned upon a carrier seeking assistance at the state level,” Bergstrom said. “Dell Telephone filed its waiver petition in June 2012, and it is not clear why the Bureau could not have raised this issue long before now.”
By the 2015 school year, every school should have access to 100 Mbps Internet per 1,000 students, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel planned to tell participants at a Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition conference Thursday evening, according to her prepared remarks. By the end of the decade, that number should increase to 1 Gbps per 1,000 students, she said. “E-Rate 2.0” will better position U.S. students to compete with those abroad, who are currently delivering faster speeds to students who are getting more math and science in their curricula, Rosenworcel planned to say. Roughly half of E-rate schools access the Internet at speeds of 3 Mbps or less, she was to say. We fail our students if we expect digital age learning to take place at near dial-up speeds.” To reach her speed goals, the commission will need more data collection, according to her prepared remarks, adding future E-rate applications should collect more information about existing capacity and projected needs. But applicants should also face a “simpler process” to get funding, she said. Multi-year and consortia applications could reduce paperwork and administrative expense, she said. To find the money for all this, the FCC needs to do more to combat waste and abuse in its other USF programs, she wrote. Lifeline needs “more mending” to free up funds to put into E-rate, she said. “We have a choice,” Rosenworcel said. “We can wait and see where the status quo takes us and let other nations lead the way. Or we can choose a future where all American students have the opportunity to gain the skills they need to compete, no matter who they are, where they live, or where they go to school."
Several Texas telcos have sought recovery of millions of dollars’ worth of lost federal support money from the state’s USF (CD April 4 p5). “We commend Texas for creating a process to address any unique concerns for carriers in the state of Texas as a result of recent universal service reforms,” the order said. “We consider these efforts to be a positive development for federal-state coordination and partnership, and encourage other states to consider similar approaches as states may be best positioned to address any unique circumstances for carriers in their state."