All three of this summer’s NARUC telecom resolutions passed the association’s telecom committee unanimously Tuesday. The resolutions will preserve state authority to tax and charge VoIP providers for state USF funds, relay service and E-911; urge the FCC to continue pursuing rural call termination issues and enforcing penalties against violators; and question the agency’s use of what the resolution says is an “arbitrary and capricious” methodology of determining USF funds. The resolution on the FCC’s methodology proved the most controversial, and faced much debate and revision in both the telecom subcommittee and committee. USTelecom voiced multiple objections based on feared delays. Objectors feared delays would result from a resolution provision demanding the FCC refer to the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service for many of its decisions (CD July 25 p8). “The FCC needs to get this [USF fund] model right,” said California Public Utilities Commissioner Catherine Sandoval. Resolution sponsor Commissioner Larry Landis of Indiana discussed USTelecom’s concerns at the Tuesday vote and said last-minute revisions had led the organization to be “satisfied” with the changes, which “may assuage the concerns of USTelecom if not all of their members.” The telecom committee clapped upon passing this third controversial resolution. Telecom Committee Chairman and Vermont Public Service Board Commissioner John Burke said voting was “smoother than usual” given the unanimity of all three votes.
Regression analysis-based caps on USF support for high-cost capital and operational expenses are already having “significant adverse effects,” even under the phased-in transition plan, representatives of The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association and Tri-County Telephone told an aide to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai Monday, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bnh62p). Business planning efforts and employee retention are being hampered, and Tri-County has had to make “trade-offs” between deploying upgraded network facilities and streamlining operations, they said. The filing asked the commission to suspend the caps and conduct testing “to confirm or deny their volatility or even their validity."
AT&T and Verizon have their own plans for developing broadband, and they don’t include accepting money from the FCC, the telcos said. AT&T rejected $48 million and Verizon $20 million of Connect America Fund (CAF) support, citing prior company strategy regarding broadband development. The Virgin Islands Telephone Co. declined the $255,000 Vitelco was allocated, saying it was unable to meet a condition for accepting the funds.
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Multiple challenges emerged for the FCC at a midyear NARUC meeting. Some regulators and officials questioned USF methodology, called for Federal State Joint Board on USF referral of FCC decisions and questioned the broader direction the commission has moved on telecom in recent years. The strains have manifested in broader misgivings that some panelists discussed about the November USF/intercarrier compensation order (http://xrl.us/bnhyb7) as well as a more focused critique and controversy surrounding a quantile regression analysis for the fund.
State universal service funds vary in considerable ways, concluded the National Regulatory Research Institute (NRRI) in a new report on the topic released online Friday. NRRI submitted 10 questions to the states in a survey and heard back from 49 states as well as the District of Columbia to help in “understanding the design of the state funds and the level of funding,” which NRRI calls in its report “particularly critical” (http://xrl.us/bnhtrk). Underscored results from the NRRI report include the statistics that 43 states and the district possess “a combination of various universal service funds, including high-cost, Lifeline, schools and libraries, and other types of funds”; 21 states devote funds specifically for high-cost support; 31 states have funds for relay service; four devote funds specifically to broadband; and six states (Alabama, Delaware, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey and Tennessee) “do not have any form of funds to support telecommunications service.” The report also breaks down other elements, such as when VoIP providers contribute to state USF funds -- three states accept voluntary VoIP contributions, 10 states require contributions from all VoIP providers and 11 require contributions from only interconnected VoIP providers. NRRI recommends tailoring each state’s approach to its nature. “Each state fund must be designed individually to meet the specific needs of both the state’s constituents and its carriers,” NRRI wrote in its conclusion. “States with largely rural populations may generally design their funds to include high-cost support for carriers providing service in difficult to reach or widely dispersed areas. States with more urban populations may not need high-cost funds, and may concentrate their efforts on supporting specific goals such as broadband deployment or Lifeline services."
PORTLAND, Ore. -- The question of wither state regulation was a subtext on all the telecom panels in the initial days of the NARUC midyear meeting. State commissioners observed a declining regulatory role for years and enshrined quite clearly in legislation from the past year, as they said a recent report from the National Regulatory Research Institute (NRRI) made clear. The U.S. is in the midst of “deregulation fever,” concluded a June NRRI report on the various legislatures’ deregulation bills, which “will not subside” (CD June 19 p11). New services that draw on Internet Protocol create new challenges of definition, and regulation no longer covers them in the same way, said commissioners and staff who said they're trying to figure out their roles.
PORTLAND, Ore. -- State regulators axed the first proposed telecom resolution at their mid-year meeting. The NARUC telecom subcommittee spent much of the weekend poring over four draft resolutions, three of which passed out of staff negotiations and will now be assessed by telecom committee commissioners, and then potentially to the full NARUC board. One resolution died at its author’s wish.
The “rumor” is that the FCC is considering granting Vonage’s waiver request and then opening a rulemaking on access to numbering, NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay reported telling an aide to Commissioner Ajit Pai on Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnhkca). That’s neither “efficient nor logical,” and a rulemaking is the proper way to proceed, NARUC said. The FCC must also protect funding streams for state programs as it reforms the contribution side of the USF, the association said. “The FCC should not increase pressure on the State programs and at the same time undercut -- inadvertently or otherwise -- funding sources for these crucial State programs,” NARUC wrote in an ex parte filing.
The FCC approved a fourth order on reconsideration on rules for the USF Mobility Fund, which said “if a petition for reconsideration simply repeats arguments that were previously considered and rejected in the proceeding, it will not likely warrant reconsideration.” The order (http://xrl.us/bnhfr8) affirmed the FCC’s earlier adoption of a reverse auction mechanism. But the commission turned down several requests for changes, including requests that the FCC: restrict or prohibit Tier I carriers from receiving Mobility Fund Phase I support; hold applications for eligible telecom carrier status in abeyance pending completion of the auction and then automatically qualify any winning bidder as an ETC; and deem a carrier to be a Lifeline-only ETC to be eligible to participate in the Mobility Fund without first obtaining general ETC status. The FCC also rejected “for purposes of the auction of Mobility Fund Phase I support, arguments that the Commission provide for bidding preferences to small or rural entities and extend eligibility for the Tribal lands bidding credit to entities that are not Tribally-owned or controlled.”
Massachusetts officials defended technology-neutral cramming rules, third-party blocking and the creation of a Do-Not-Cram registry, in a July 13 meeting with FCC representatives, according to an FCC notice released Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnha9a). The Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable Commissioner Geoffrey Why and Deputy General Counsel Kalun Lee also discussed Lifeline, with the commissioner encouraging “revision of FCC Form 499 to obtain more granular data regarding state contributions, which would allow the states to determine whether all stakeholders were fairly contributing to the USF,” and asking “the FCC to prohibit all Lifeline eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) from passing along to their Lifeline consumers the obligation to contribute to the USF,” according to the FCC’s notice. Also of concern were Massachusetts’ Lifeline broadband pilot program and the service quality of 911, both of which the state officials are reviewing and may return to in the coming months, the filing said.