In the last two years, he has perhaps submitted more comments to the FCC than any other party. He has chimed in on dozens of dockets, from media ownership to USF. He has no law degree or experience in working in the telecom industry. So far this month, he has submitted more than 300 comments.
Members of the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association are active providers of both fixed and mobile wireless services, contrary to an assertion made by Sprint Nextel in its reply comments regarding USF contribution reform, NTCA said in a letter Monday (http://xrl.us/bnkk2v). Sprint had asserted that NTCA’s arguments regarding assessing text messaging services should be disregarded because “none [of those parties] provide wireless services,” NTCA said, quoting Sprint’s comments. “In fact, sixty-one percent of NTCA members responding to an association survey in 2011 indicated that they provide wireless service to consumers,” NTCA said. The association hoped its letter would correct the “factual misunderstanding."
AT&T executives met with advisers to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and commissioners Ajit Pai, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel last week to discuss two universal service-related draft orders, its ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bnkkzj). AT&T stated its understanding that the commission is considering a draft order upholding a 2004 Wireline Bureau order that established an asymmetrical deadline for filing revisions to a 499-A form. The commission should adopt the Internal Revenue Service’s three year deadline for all 499-A revisions, AT&T said. Regarding the pending draft order acting on a 2010 petition for clarification filed by AT&T and several other wholesale providers of interstate telecom services, the commission should pursue the reseller directly for amounts owed to the USF, AT&T said. AT&T is also concerned about “both the scope and the substance” of the guidance offered in the tribal engagement public notice released in July, the execs said. “The alleged ‘guidance’ provided little real world guidance and the concrete examples that were included in the notice are not realistic,” the filing said.
The FCC lacks “clear authority” to require standalone fixed broadband providers to contribute to the USF, the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association said in comments filed at the FCC, in response to a further rulemaking notice. “While commenters offer claims of dubious legal authority and purported policy benefits for such a proposal, what remains is that standalone providers are, at present, legally prohibited from receiving any USF subsidies and the proposal could require such providers to subsidize direct broadband competitors,” WISPA said (http://xrl.us/bnkku5).
The National Public Safety Telecom Council began a working group to explore questions raised by public safety’s pending loss of the T-band, which was part of the February spectrum law. Public safety got the 700 MHz D-block in the legislation, but had to give up the T-band, heavily used in 11 major metropolitan areas. NPSTC sent out a questionnaire (http://xrl.us/bnkk2a) to gather information as the group prepares a report, targeted for release near the end of the year. Among the major cities where public safety uses the band are Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, New York, Houston and Washington, D.C. The legislation required public safety users to clear the band within nine years so it can be resold in an FCC auction.
Three Alaskan lawmakers urged the FCC to approve a waiver to provide USF funds for a telecom company operating on the remote Adak Island of the Aleutian chain. “Adak is arguably the most remote community in the United States,” and its residents’ dependence on telecommunications is “enormous,” said the letter which was made public last week. Without the support of USF funds, Windy City Cellular, which serves the Adak community, can continue to operate “for only a couple of weeks” and if its service is discontinued the negative impact to the people of Adak “will be most severe,” the letter said. It was signed by Alaskan Sens. Mark Begich, a Democrat, and Lisa Murkowski, Republican, and Republican Rep. Don Young, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs. In June the FCC granted Windy City Cellular limited interim relief of the USF/ICC Transformation Order to provide the company with $40,104 per month for a period of six months beginning in June 2012, or until the commission resolves the company’s pending waiver petition. In the relief order the commission noted that it needed additional time to “compile a full record regarding the nature and level of WCC’s costs” and complete its evaluation of WCC’s petition (http://xrl.us/bnbocq).
The FCC should grant Dell Telephone Cooperative’s petition for waiver of some of the high-cost universal service rules, small telcos told the Wireline Bureau. The Baca Valley telco in Des Moines, and Leaco Rural telco and Peñasco Valley telco in southeast New Mexico, said application of the new rules to Dell would have severe impacts and likely lead to the loss of voice service in the Dell service area. Dell seeks a waiver of the $250 per line per month cap, the rule limiting reimbursable capital and operating expenses applied to high-cost loop support, and rules limiting recovery of corporate operations expenses applied to HCLS and interstate common line support. “Given the dire financial situation facing Dell as a result of the FCC’s USF reform policies and the very real possibility that its customers will lose essential voice service, Leaco supports Dell’s request for waiver,” the telco said (http://xrl.us/bnj78m). “This is no trifling matter,” said Peñasco Valley. “There are scant alternatives for Dell’s customers if it is forced into liquidation,” the telco wrote, noting “several similarities between itself and Dell, both in the challenges of serving a sparsely populated service area in harsh (both geographic and climatic) outside plant conditions, and in the financial harm threatened by the Commission’s new high cost rules” (http://xrl.us/bnj78y).
The FCC committed no errors in dismissing a petition for review of $316,447.38 in USF contributions assessed by the Universal Service Administrative Co. against inContact in January 2009, the commission said in a pleading filed at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The provider of cloud-based products for corporate call centers later disputed $298,410.50 of the charges, but its complaint was dismissed by the Wireline Bureau. The bureau said inContact had filed its appeal “20 days late.” In June 2010, inContact sought review by the full FCC, which handed down an order in January 2012, upholding the decision by the bureau. InContact sought review by the D.C. Circuit. “The sole issue properly before the Court is whether the Commission abused its discretion when it upheld the Bureau’s dismissal of inContact’s underlying request for review of an action taken by the Administrator because inContact’s request was filed out of time,” the FCC said (http://xrl.us/bnj26p). “The Commission did not abuse its discretion or otherwise act unlawfully when it concluded that inContact’s request had been properly dismissed on procedural grounds. The Commission reasonably determined that the issuance of an invoice by USAC constitutes a ‘decision’ of the Administrator that must be appealed within 60 days. ... Because inContact did not file its request for review until 80 days after issuance of the invoice, it was too late.” The FCC said under case law, “the courts owe substantial deference to an agency’s construction of its own rules."
The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment on a June 21 petition by UTPhone seeking a waiver of FCC rules limiting Link Up support on tribal lands to eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) receiving USF high-cost support. “UTPhone argues that it is entitled to receive Tribal Link Up support because it is building telecommunications infrastructure on Tribal lands,” the bureau said (http://xrl.us/bnjxqw). Comments are due Sept. 7, replies Sept. 24. “As a small Low Income ETC serving consumers predominantly on Tribal lands in Oklahoma, UTPhone is a local company that has fulfilled the statutory and public interest objectives of the Commission’s Low Income program by filling a valuable niche in offering competitive, high-quality, locally oriented wireline telecommunications services focused specifically on the particular needs and demographics of low income Oklahomans residing on Tribal lands,” the company said in its waiver request (http://xrl.us/bnjxrc). “With its new and growing broadband network infrastructure, UTPhone is now poised to add a high speed broadband service component to its bundle of offerings to these low income consumers who are struggling to move into the Internet age."
Comments filed on USF contribution reform show little agreement and point to the need for more discussion, Verizon and Verizon Wireless said in FCC reply comments. That conclusion was seconded by many companies and groups filing replies this week. Though many suggested short-term fixes, most agreed there is little consensus to move to a numbers-based or connections-based approach.