Small healthcare providers feel burdened by the number of FCC forms they must fill out each year to get support from USF rural health care (RHC) programs, National State Offices of Rural Health and the Michigan Center for Rural Health officials told Wireline Bureau staffers, said an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bmzpqb). Many recipients hire contractors to complete the required paperwork, the groups said, suggesting the commission consider a three-year period of eligibility so entities won’t have to refile Form 466 every year. They said that the RHC primary program has led to the creation of the greater Minnesota telehealth broadband initiative pilot, but implementation is being delayed because of “lack of administrative funding for the project, the difficulty in finding a 15 percent match, confusion at the outset of the program as to whether it was [a] grant program, and the unusual nature of the RHC competitive bidding process.” The driving factor for broadband adoption by rural health clinics is image size and the ability to do teleradiology, the groups said in a filing in docket 02-60 made Wednesday by a bureau staffer who participated in the March 7 meeting. It said the groups want the agency to “consider incentives for local telecommunications companies to build out last mile connections,” which could help with a lack of connectivity throughout Minnesota.
C-Spire, U.S. Cellular, Allied Wireless and other small carriers opposed a T-Mobile petition seeking reconsideration or clarification of the FCC’s USF/intercarrier compensation reform order. “Grant of the Petition would directly contravene the Commission’s overarching policy objective of reducing legacy USF support payments,” the carriers said in an ex parte filing reporting on their meeting at the agency (http://xrl.us/bmzo7q). “In un-capped states (e.g., Arizona, Hawaii, Louisiana and Oregon) any additional support to T-Mobile would necessitate increased funding from the USF pool.” The carriers said the support T-Mobile is seeking “is for prior investment, made perhaps many years ago by T-Mobile, without a penny of high-cost support.”
The structure of USF-supported capital and operating expense caps imposed in the FCC USF-intercarrier compensation order “defeats the predictability required of USF support as required by the Communications Act,” NTCA told an adviser to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn on Monday (http://xrl.us/bmzkvv). Dynamic, year-by-year alteration of the caps presents “substantial challenges” for all rural LECs, and instills a “consistent fear that any given RLEC might be next in line to trigger the caps if that RLEC undertakes further broadband deployment,” NTCA said in an ex parte filing. The dynamic nature of the caps also confuses lenders and investors, NTCA said. “Allowing such uncertainty to perpetuate and to potentially stymie the deployment of broadband would be contrary to the very purpose of the National Broadband Plan, the President’s own stimulus initiatives, and stated objectives of the Commission’s reform.” NTCA also expressed concern on continuing call completion issues, truth in Caller ID issues and access avoidance and phantom traffic problems.
Republicans in the House and FCC took aim at Chairman Julius Genachowski for his proposal to require broadcasters to post political files online. At a budget hearing Monday of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services, the plan was criticized by Chairman Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., and FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. Genachowski defended the FCC’s authority to make the change and highlighted the commission’s progress freeing up spectrum and deploying broadband.
The Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved the motion of Commissioner James Cawley Thursday to reopen the record of its rural ILEC access charge investigation order (docket No. C-2009-2098380) to examine the “cross-effects” from the FCC’s Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation order, the PUC said. The PUC will initiate a new proceeding no later than April 20 to examine the implementation of the FCC order, it said. The implementation of the FCC’s USF order triggers a series of compliance obligations, Cawley said. The FCC’s order also has material effects on major adjudication decisions by the PUC, and the PUC’s access charge order needs to be updated accordingly, he said. The PUC’s rural ILEC access charge investigation order had ruled that the intrastate switched access rates for rural incumbent LECs had to gradually move to their interstate equivalents. The rural ILECs would have been afforded “revenue neutral” recovery of “lost” intrastate carrier access charge revenues from retail local service rates through the use of a $23 monthly basic local residential service “benchmark.” That’s the residential local rate per month, and would not include various taxes.
Commissioner Robert McDowell said the FCC appears to be moving too slowly to wrap up all aspects of Universal Service Fund reform, including the Rural Health Care Program. His remarks came in a speech Thursday at the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center Summit in Charlottesville, Va. The FCC approved last year the start of USF distribution reform and an order on the Lifeline program in January. But other work remains to be done, McDowell said. “I understand that some of you have been anxiously waiting for the FCC to move forward on finalizing our efforts to reform the rural healthcare program,” he said. “So have I. As part of the implementation of that plan, the commission has already reformed some of the other USF programs on a piecemeal basis.” McDowell said that in a “perfect world” the agency would have taken on all USF spending programs at the same time, while also completing contribution reform. “Consistent with my long-standing advocacy for truly comprehensive reform, I will continue to press the commission to complete all of its reform efforts, including reform of the rural healthcare program, as quickly as possible,” he said. McDowell said he saw the importance of telehealth during a trip to Alaska during his first year as a commissioner. “The most memorable portions of the trip were the health clinics,” he said. “There I could see how medical images from the most remote corners of Alaska were transmitted to specialists in Anchorage. I learned how using telehealth technology can actually save money because, in many instances, having that technology close at hand means the patient can avoid flying hundreds of miles to a hospital.” McDowell noted that while the FCC created the healthcare program in 2007, it asked for comments on possible changes in 2010. “The commission has not only garnered valuable information from those who commented but also has learned a tremendous amount from participants in the pilot program,” he said. “All of this information will be incredibly valuable as the commission moves to the next step in the reform process."
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said he’s “pleased” TV station blackouts on subscription-video providers seemed to have been kept in check as retransmission consent contracts expired and often were renewed at year’s end. Retrans blackouts and “very serious disruptions to consumers” were kept to “a minimum” in the cycle of agreements that expired around Dec. 31, he said Wednesday. “I know that took some work on the part of cable operators and broadcasters to get there -- so that’s good news.” Cable executives also speaking to an American Cable Association conference said FCC retrans rules need fixing, while broadcast officials said the system works.
Chairman Julius Genachowski voiced hope that the FCC will get data on broadband availability from small cable operators to help the agency direct money to fast-Internet projects in areas unserved by any ISP. The commission is “committed” to not funding broadband projects in areas that are already served and needs help from American Cable Association members in providing relevant information, he told the ACA’s convention Wednesday. He pledged the FCC will be careful to seek only what it needs so as not to overburden small companies with requests, and he hopes they'll deliver the needed documents. Genachowski also said the FCC wants to work with industry to keep a lid on viewer complaints about loud TV ads and will keep small operators in mind in reviewing whether to extend viewability rules for stations guaranteed cable carriage.
The FCC should wrap up this year an order providing for interoperability in the lower 700 MHz band, representatives of Vulcan Wireless said in a series of meetings at the agency. Creating a single band class in the band would “provide the certainty necessary for Lower 700 MHz A Block licensees to meet their looming build-out deadlines as well as upcoming USF mobility fund deadlines, allowing them to compete for universal service and other broadband funds intended to spur mobile broadband development in rural areas,” Vulcan said (http://xrl.us/bmxy5d). An interoperability requirement would also “address the ’spectrum crunch’ by unleashing 12 MHz of valuable and immediately available spectrum for competitive wireless broadband service.” The commission is slated to vote on a 700 MHz interoperability rulemaking notice at its March 21 meeting.
A Colorado bill seeks to modernize the state’s telecom law by phasing out subsidies in competitive areas of the state and investing in broadband in unserved areas, among other things. The bill targets CenturyLink customers in rural, hard-to-serve areas and could result in their loss of service, said CenturyLink, the largest provider in the state. Rural providers in the state support the bill, saying it might help them offset some of the revenue loss resulting from the FCC’s USF reform.