Over 83,000 new U.S. road miles in 31 states will get access to mobile Internet within 3 years, the FCC said Wednesday as it disclosed results of its Mobility Fund “Auction 901” to allocate $300 million toward closing gaps in mobile coverage. Carriers that received funding must complete projects within three years, and must make their networks available to other providers for roaming, the commission said. The Competitive Carriers Association praised the one-time “infusion” of support, but said the agency needs to make more funding available on an annual basis if it wants to achieve its universal service goals.
Small and mid-sized cable operators are watching how the FCC develops Connect America Fund Phase II before deciding whether to bid for federal funds to expand broadband networks to unserved rural areas, industry officials told us. They said the Phase II CAF cost model, on which the FCC held a workshop earlier this month (CD Sept 14 p3), is one element that could prompt cable operators to compete for the funding. But plans haven’t been firmed up, and none may come to fruition on the part of cable operators, industry officials said.
Telcos and carriers expressed strong support for a USTelecom petition for reconsideration of an FCC public notice that imposed various obligations on eligible telecommunications carriers that deal with tribal groups. The rules violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), and the First Amendment, groups say. But tribal groups that commented strongly objected to the petition, calling it “misguided” and “deeply disappointing.” The public notice (http://xrl.us/bnro5r) offered “further guidance” on the tribal government engagement obligation provisions in the USF/intercarrier compensation order, and USTelecom took issue with its calls for “culturally sensitive” marketing and in-person meetings between telecom executives and tribal leaders.
Telcos and associations challenging the FCC’s USF/intercarrier compensation order filed a joint preliminary brief Monday presenting 18 issues for the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to decide (http://xrl.us/bnrd3e). Questions include whether the FCC overstepped its authority by preempting the states’ authority to set intrastate rates, designate eligible telecom carriers and set service areas; requiring recipients of USF support to provide unregulated “information services”; and modifying or eliminating high-cost support mechanisms. Petitioners are also challenging the commission’s move to a “bill-and-keep” system of intercarrier compensation; a new obligation barring call blocking on VoIP providers; and the infringement of tribal sovereignty. Petitioners include CenturyLink, tw telecom, U.S. Cellular, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, and several state public utilities commissions and rural telephone cooperatives.
LAS VEGAS -- Competitive Carriers Association officials warn that unless the FCC approves a mandate requiring that all devices built for lower 700 MHz spectrum work across the band, CCA members are unlikely to make much of a play in the upcoming incentive auction of broadcast spectrum. CCA officials cite what they say is a statistic that shows why an interoperability mandate is critical -- members of the group invested some $2 billion in the 700 MHz auction and most to date have been unable to roll out service.
Colorado Public Utilities Commission staff argued its case in the state’s ongoing telecom overhaul, in reply comments posted Friday (http://bit.ly/TqW3UE). The state shouldn’t tie its high-cost USF fund to effective competition rulings, staff argued. Colorado should also retain 911 obligations on a “technology neutral” basis, anticipating next-generation 911 systems, the staff said. The commission should continue to oversee service quality and receive consumer complaints -- and it should “update its service quality rules and require compliance on a technology neutral basis,” staff recommended. The PUC “has and should assert authority over Internet Protocol to Internet Protocol ('IP-to-IP') interconnection,” the comments said. It should skip the FCC debates over VoIP’s definition, and simply say VoIP is a technology and provide no definitions, staff said. Its comments frequently compared and contrasted the different industry positions on these questions in detailed charts. Staff submitted its reply comments well after the deadline due to travel delays (CD Sept 21 p10).
Supporting broadband without expanding the contribution base to include broadband, one-way VoIP, text messaging and enterprise services will lead to older households “shouldering an unfair and an inequitable share of USF assessments,” AARP representatives told FCC Wireline Bureau officials Friday (http://xrl.us/bnq8ma). The commission should assess all services that benefit from the USF program, AARP said.
Rep. Jeff Landry, R-La., introduced a bill to neuter the FCC’s USF reform order. The Restore Effective Statistics to the Calculation of USF Expenditures (RESCUE) Act would ensure that the order on the commission’s Connect America Fund and high-cost USF support would no longer have force or effect and require the FCC to prepare a report on alternatives. The bill introduced Friday said the order will “invariably” lead to the closure of many small businesses, was made in direct conflict with the USF mandate, relies on unpredictable regression models and “unfairly manipulates” federal support for carriers. The bill’s a “significant step to correct the FCC’s deeply flawed method for limiting USF support for rural telecommunications providers,” NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield said in a news release. “This bill highlights three of the most significant shortcomings of the commission’s new statistical caps on universal service support: their disregard for statutory mandates requiring that federal universal service support be predictable; their alarming inaccuracy; and their retroactive nature that penalizes prior commitments made in good faith by job creators all over this country.”
Broadband ISPs excoriated the FCC for adopting unrealistic standards for its Section 706 report on the state of broadband deployment, in comments filed Thursday and Friday in docket 12-228. In response to a notice of inquiry asking what factors the commission should consider for its ninth report (http://xrl.us/bnqtzn), the telcos and cable companies aired some longstanding grievances about the commission’s findings the last three years that broadband was not being deployed on a “reasonable and timely fashion” (CD Aug 22 p1). States spoke of the need for the commission to tweak its USF rules to enable faster deployment of broadband, and interest groups expressed a need for a faster definition of broadband to enable more data-hungry applications.
The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association and 17 representatives of rural telcos met with FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai Monday to discuss the “serious problems created by the lack of transparency and predictability in the regression analysis-based caps” on USF support, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bnqogj). The potential for future caps is “exacerbating uncertainty in the marketplace,” they said. They also asked Pai to reconsider eliminating the Safety Net Additive, which amounts to a “flash cut” despite commission promises that there won’t be any, they said. “The Commission should permit those carriers who would have qualified for SNA specifically based upon investments in 2010 and 2011 to obtain such support as part of the phase-out of that program,” they said.