A vote is unlikely on intercarrier compensation and Universal Service Fund overhaul at the FCC’s Dec. 18 meeting, Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters Tuesday after he spoke at a Phoenix Center telecom symposium. But he left open the possibility that the FCC could act while he still is chairman at its January meeting. Martin said the FCC may act in December on rules for the AWS-3 and 700 MHz D-block auctions. He also said Comcast could face fines or other penalties for failing to respond adequately to a request by the commission for information on the policies of cable companies switching to digital (CD Nov 18 p7).
Former FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth counseled future commissioners to “follow the law narrowly” and said “grandiose schemes do not work” during a Tuesday panel discussion at a Phoenix Center telecom symposium. Furchtgott-Roth said before he joined the FCC a “sage” telecom veteran told him telecom law is “infinitely flexible, infinitely elastic” and can be “molded” to fit any objectives. He said he came to disagree completely. “Uncertainty in the implementation of the law does more harm than any possible objective could rationalize,” he said. “Every time the FCC loses in courts it’s not just the FCC that loses, it’s the American consumer that loses. It’s the American investor who loses. Everyone who cares about the telecom sector loses.” Former Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy, appearing on the same panel, said universal broadband deployment raises issues more complicated than most would imagine. “We have seen, for example, with wired in schools through the FCC’s USF program, that schools were wired and computers were put in a closet,” she said. “Why were the computers put in a closet? Because the teachers had not been taught how to teach using the Internet.” Abernathy said most in the U.S. have access to broadband: “It is the take-rate issue, and that’s the challenge.”
NEW ORLEANS -- State phone regulators see December as a key month, said panelists at the annual NARUC meeting here. Nebraska Public Service Commission member Sue Vanicek said her state’s suit over its power to assess Vonage and other intrastate VoIP providers a 6.95 percent fee to support the state universal service fund will affect USF efforts by other states, as will an FCC ruling expected next month on changing the federal system for ensuring universal phone service and agency controls on intercarrier compensation.
NEW ORLEANS -- Qwest CEO Ed Mueller said the economic crisis shows that regulation has its place. Lauding state regulators for “successfully opening the industry to competition,” Mueller told NARUC telecommunications committee members Monday that state commissions gave his company and other incumbent providers “the flexibility to offer new services, bundles and promotions and adjust pricing to compete effectively and better serve customers.”
The FCC must improve administration of the Universal Service Fund, USF payers and recipients said last week in comments on an October FCC inquiry into how it might strengthen USF management, administration and oversight (CD Sept 15 p7). High error rates cited in a 2007 Inspector General audit worry the FCC. Meanwhile, Universal Service Administrative Co. and parent National Exchange Carrier Association urged the FCC to approve a divestiture of USAC from NECA.
With President-elect Barack Obama set to lead in 2009, FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein hopes broadband deployment and other “long-neglected” issues “finally get the attention they deserve,” he said Thursday in a keynote at a University of Nebraska College of Law conference. Afterward, a panel of telecom officials said the FCC and Congress should focus on broadband deployment next year.
A reply comments deadline could keep the FCC from voting to revamp intercarrier compensation and the Universal Service Fund at its December meeting, FCC spokesman Robert Kenny said Wednesday. Wednesday’s Federal Register said comments on three competing revamp plans are due Nov. 26, with replies due Dec. 3. The FCC usually circulates agenda items three weeks before a meeting. This reply deadline is two weeks and a day before the Dec. 18 meeting. The final circulation period could be less than two weeks, because it likely will take the Wireline Bureau two days to write an order once replies arrive, said an FCC official.
The DTV transition is among 13 priorities the new White House must confront immediately, the Government Accountability Office said Thursday. Nearly a third of U.S. households are at “some risk” of losing TV service Feb. 17, GAO said, and many Americans are confused about what to do. NTIA likely will see coupon demand rise as the transition nears but “has no plan to address the increased demand,” the agency said.
Four members of the FCC pledged to work together on broad intercarrier compensation and Universal Service Fund reform, for a vote at the Dec. 18 FCC meeting. The four cited growing consensus on several issues teed up for decision, in a statement they all signed. But FCC Chairman Kevin Martin questioned whether his colleagues will really be ready to reach a decision in December. The letter was released just before midnight Wednesday, as the FCC responded to a writ of mandamus by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit addressing the so-called ISP remand (CD Nov 6 p1).
A new Universal Service Administrative Co. report proves the FCC needn’t revamp Universal Service Fund contribution, the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates said Monday. In the report, USAC projected it would need to collect $1.6 billion in Q1 2009. “If the revenues subject to assessment for the first quarter are consistent with prior quarters, the USF assessment factor for the first quarter will likely be at its lowest since the end of 2006,” NASUCA said. That shows that “the current revenue-based mechanism is not in crisis,” said David Bergmann, chair of NASUCA’s telecom committee. “There is no need for a switch to a numbers-based, connections-based, or hybrid system.”