The House Appropriations Committee approved $7.29 billion for telecom loans in the FY13 agriculture appropriations bill on Tuesday. The committee also approved $27.1 million for the Department of Agriculture’s distance learning, telemedicine and broadband program, including $15 million for rural telemedicine and distance learning grants. The committee said it was “disappointed” with the progress of broadband projects funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and ordered the USDA to “significantly quicken” the pace of broadband project review, approval and completion. The bill also ordered the agency to report on how the FCC’s plans to reform the USF and intercarrier compensation will affect Rural Utility Service telecom borrowers. The bill will next be considered by the House Rules Committee on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. in room H-313 of the Capitol.
The FCC fined a company $1.7 million for “willfully or repeatedly failing to contribute fully” to the universal service, North American Numbering Plan, and local number portability funds; failing to pay regulatory fees when due; and filing inaccurate form 499s (http://xrl.us/bnb54d). The Florida-based telecom provider, Telseven, sold a service allowing consumers to obtain information about recently disconnected or out-of-service toll free numbers. Telseven charged a “Federal Universal Service Fund charge” and an “administrative recovery fee” to consumers, but according to the Universal Service Administrative Co., Telseven hadn’t made any USF payments since November 2007, and owed over $1 million in “delinquent USF contributions.” Telseven filed for bankruptcy in April and its website indicates it is no longer providing telecom services. Our efforts to reach Telseven for comment were unsuccessful.
*June 18 American Consumer Institute panel on “looming spectrum crunch,” noon, 2103 Rayburn building -- steve@theamericanconsumer.org
The Senate Appropriations Committee offered the FCC more than a handful of suggestions on how the commission should focus its resources in the coming year, including political file disclosures, consumer privacy guidelines and landline cramming rules. The committee’s position on FCC policy was included in its draft financial services and general government appropriations bill for FY13 (http://xrl.us/bnbvn7). The committee urged the FCC to implement the USF reform waiver process in a “transparent, timely and equitable manner.” Senate Indian Affairs Committee members recently took issue with the hurdles and cost of the FCC’s waiver process for telecommunications companies that serve native and rural communities (CD June 8 p6). The Appropriations Committee urged the commission to consider changes to its wireline cramming rules by implementing an opt-in requirement for third-party wireline charges rather than its proposed opt-out rules. The draft also suggested that the FCC consider solutions to the problem of cramming on wireless bills. The committee commended the FCC’s requirements for broadcasters’ public inspection files as a means to increase the transparency of campaign advertising purchases. The draft bill urged the commission to work with the FTC to issue guidance on best practices for protecting the privacy of consumer information over wireless networks. The committee directed the FCC to study the privacy policies that govern how major communications companies collect and use personal information online. The bill is awaiting consideration on the Senate floor following committee approval Thursday by a 16-14 vote along party lines (CD June 15 p8).
The FCC needs to become “more nimble” in “keeping pace with the marketplace and technological innovation,” new Commissioner Ajit Pai told the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee Friday. The FCC’s other new Commissioner, Jessica Rosenworcel, told the CAC consumer issues loom large for her.
The FCC special access order on circulation “lays out a path” for data collection, but the request will appear in a subsequent order, Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett said. The order doesn’t roll back existing grants of pricing flexibility, she told a conference on the transition to an Internet Protocol-based telecom framework. AT&T’s top lobbyist also discussed the transition to an all-IP network at the conference, and blogged (http://xrl.us/bnbvrn) about it. (See story below.) The draft puts new grants on hold while the commission “sets out a path to reform” legacy rules that “increasingly appear ill-suited to the competitive landscape that exists for today,” Gillett said Friday.
The FCC Wireless Bureau agreed to provide “limited, interim support” of $40,104 per month -- for at least three months and up to six months -- for Windy City Cellular, which serves remote parts of Alaska including Adak Island. Under the USF reform order approved by the FCC last year, support for eligible telecommunications carriers serving remote parts of Alaska was limited to $3,000 per line per year ($250 per line per month) beginning Jan. 1. WCC has warned that it would have to cease operations without additional funding. WCC said it saw the USF support it receives fall by some 84 percent, from $136,344 in December 2011, to $22,356 in January. “The Bureau finds that this limited relief is appropriate to ensure that WCC can maintain its wireless operations until we have a full opportunity to evaluate its Petition based on the totality of relevant information,” the bureau said (http://xrl.us/bnbocq). Adak Island, part of the Aleutian chain, is among the more remote parts of Alaska with a year-round population of 326. Adak is Alaska’s southernmost town.
T-Mobile asked the FCC to approve its revised proposal to offer Lifeline service in seven states and the District of Columbia under the USF program. The request came in a meeting with Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett and other bureau officials. “T-Mobile has been a strong advocate of reform of the Lifeline program to modernize it and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse and it has taken steps to ensure that only qualified customers participate in the program,” the carrier said in an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bnbkw6). “T-Mobile’s Lifeline application process conforms to the new statutory and regulatory requirements, and we have customer care representatives dedicated to properly processing Lifeline applications and to explaining to customers what they are certifying to when applying for Lifeline service.” T-Mobile also answered a question posed by staff -- whether its sales reps mention the brand names of other Lifeline providers, the filing said. “While our customer care representatives do not name other Lifeline programs by name, they do explain to customers that Lifeline is a government benefit, that they must be eligible in order to receive the benefit, and that they are prohibited from receiving more than one benefit at a time from the program."
The FCC should allow rural rate-of-return regulated ILECs to submit information on a standardized form instead of filing audited annual reports, if those ILECs do not already obtain audit reports in the ordinary course of business, the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association told Commissioner Ajit Pai’s chief of staff Monday, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bnbks2). The rural ILECs should also be able to submit financial data under seal, and pursuant to a protective order, NTCA said. NTCA also raised concerns regarding getting waivers from the new USF rules, calling the process “onerous” and time-consuming.
The proposed 3Q 2012 USF contribution factor is 15.7 percent, said an FCC public notice released Monday (http://xrl.us/bnbhvy). That’s a decrease from the 2Q contribution factor of 17.4 percent, and the 1Q factor of 17.9 percent (CD March 14 p11).