Telecom hasn’t played a “forefront” role in Montana’s public service commission races, Commissioner Gail Gutsche told us in an interview. The District 4 Democrat is running for reelection against State Sen. Bob Lake, a Republican, on the Nov. 6 ballot. “We hardly regulate at all,” she said of the PSC’s telecom oversight. The FCC’s November 2011 USF order has come up multiple times, however, she said, in questions to her opponent and before a newspaper’s editorial board. The FCC reform “could increase cost of service dramatically and put some rural carriers out of business,” she said, citing great concern for rural customers. Montana has “quite good” buildout of broadband, which is an important concern, she added. Her campaign has taken her through the seven counties of District 4 and to canvassing 2,000 doors, placing cable TV and radio ads and attending other events. “People don’t know why we're important in their lives,” she said, stressing the need to educate people on what the PSC is. Most don’t know the PSC, she said. “If you start talking regulation, you put people to sleep,” she said. She was first elected to the PSC in 2008, and there are three Montana seats open this year. The big election issues in 2012 are electricity and natural gas, not telecom, she said. Those first issues tend to split the five-member commission in 3-2 votes but commissioners tend to “vote together” on telecom issues, she said. The commission race is one among many across the country this fall (CD Oct 29 p3).
Oct. 29 FCBA Intellectual Property Committee brown bag lunch on Internet Radio Fairness Act, 12:15 p.m., Wilkinson Barker, 2300 N St. NW, Suite 7 -- http://xrl.us/bimfn6
Three state commissioners from largely rural states questioned whether the U.S. can ever provide universal access to broadband service. It’s like the notion of energy independence, Idaho Public Utilities Commissioner Paul Kjellander said Thursday during a National Regulatory Research Institute panel on state USF funds (http://xrl.us/bnv2ow). “But we're never going to get it,” he said. “It’s too expensive. ... Some divides just can’t be bridged.”
Google spent $4.18 million in lobbying in Q3, up 6.6 percent from the previous quarter, according to recent filings with the Senate. The company has spent $13.1 million on lobbying in the first nine months of 2012 as it faces an antitrust investigation for allegedly favoring its products and platforms in search rankings. It also focused lobbying efforts on legislation related to privacy, online ads, intellectual property, cybersecurity, mobile geolocation, Internet freedom, immigration and autonomous vehicle technologies.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals must “invalidate this FCC regulatory ‘gun to the head'” that is the FCC’s November 2011 USF order, a coalition of regulators, telcos and consumer advocates said. NARUC led the charge on In re: FCC 11-161 two briefs representing multiple parties, which attacked the FCC on several fronts Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnvuhd). The ongoing court case challenges the year-old order. The attack was one among many in the 10th Circuit this week. Industry forces weighed in with briefs assailing the FCC for its stances on VoIP and other elements of the order that let the fund pay for broadband and not only phone-service deployment.
Tennessee’s consumer advocate division disagrees that the Tennessee Regulatory Authority should kill the state Lifeline fund, as a coalition of state industry forces have encouraged in recent months. The advocate filed its objections with the TRA Monday (http://xrl.us/bnvop9). “It is not simply a question of whether to end or continue Tennessee’s Lifeline program,” the advocate said. The 93,000 state residents who use the program amount to a “significant” consideration and the TRA should investigate its options rather than just end the program, it said. The consumer advocate pointed out options, such as creating a state USF fund, changing the eligibility requirements for Lifeline credit and possibly to sunset the program for future thorough review. “At this time, the Consumer Advocate is unaware of any state that has ended its state Lifeline credit program or state universal service fund,” it said, calling the move possibly “premature.” AT&T reiterated its objection to the “unfunded, landline-only discount,” in a Monday brief (http://xrl.us/bnvoqf). CenturyLink, TDS Telecom, tw telecom and Level 3 endorsed the AT&T brief in separate filings submitted Monday and Tuesday. Monday marked the authority’s deadline for filing briefs on the proposal to end the program.
The FCC is meeting with stakeholders to decide what to do with the unallocated Connect America Fund Phase I money, according to industry officials and ex parte filings. Carriers accepted only $115 million of the original $300 million, leaving about $185 million still available (CD July 26 p3). The commission is teeing up several questions for a potential rulemaking about how to use that money, industry officials said. The notice, circulating on the eighth floor, proposes adding the unused money into another Phase I round of funding that could dole out $485 million for broadband buildout, an agency official said. As an alternative the notice also contemplates rolling the unused money into Phase II, the official said.
The FCC should make several changes to mitigate “regression analysis issues” inherent in the commission’s new USF model for determining reimbursable capital and operating expenditures, NTCA told the Wireline Bureau chief and advisers to Chairman Julius Genachowski and commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai (http://xrl.us/bnu3vv). NTCA wants the commission to extend the phase-in associated with the regression analysis caps; maintain current 2012 model cost limits but add together the capital and operating expenditure values for 2013 support calculations “pending consideration of a single regression model”; and adopt a rule that keeps the caps constant over a period of several years starting in 2014, as opposed to shifting year by year, its ex parte filing said. Further testing and analysis over the next year will help the commission identify “potential alternatives” to improve predictability, accuracy and transparency of the model, NTCA said.
Lingering regulatory uncertainty is frustrating telcos’ efforts to deliver quality broadband services, NTCA told FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai and an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in separate meetings Monday (http://xrl.us/bnupq8). Representatives of Wheat State telco and Wilson Communications said their plans to upgrade their networks to deliver faster broadband speeds were “on hold pending greater transparency and visibility into the effects of the regression analysis-based caps,” and the possibility of further changes to the rules, an NTCA ex parte filing said. The companies supported updating the USF mechanisms, but asked the commission to “build upon the best aspects of those mechanisms” rather than “replacing proven systems altogether,” the filing said. The commission should provide universal service support in high-cost areas where consumers want broadband without “being required to take legacy services as well,” it said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau denied two requests for review of Universal Service Administrative Co. decisions. Bestel sought review of a decision upholding late fees assessed for failure to pay into the USF on time. Bestel argued it didn’t receive invoices until months after the due date, but the commission has “consistently stated that carriers must pay their USF obligations even if they do not receive a USAC invoice,” the bureau said Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnuppa). Baltimore-Washington Telephone Co. (BWTel) sought review of a USAC decision assessing late fees for failing to timely file the Form 499-A annual telecom reporting worksheets from 2008-10. BWTel said the employee responsible for filing the form had been fired, and so USAC’s multiple invoice statements didn’t reach the right person. This didn’t sway the bureau, which said USAC is “under no obligation to notify filers of delinquent filings” (http://xrl.us/bnupqh). The bureau also denied a request by Digital Compass Telecom for a waiver of USF contribution obligations until December. Digital said it “inadvertently overstated projected revenues” on its Form 499-A, but the bureau found that the company made only “merely cursory” statements and did not explain in specific terms why the waiver would be appropriate and in the public interest (http://xrl.us/bnupqq).