The House Small Business Committee's Agriculture, Energy and Trade Subcommittee plans a Thursday hearing on improving rural broadband deployment. Competitive Carriers Association Senior Vice President-Legislative Affairs Tim Donovan, NTCA Senior Vice President-Industry Affairs and Business Development Mike Romano, Jo-Carroll Energy General Counsel Chris Allendorf and VTX1 CEO Dave Osborn are to testify. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2360 Rayburn. It will be the third broadband deployment-related hearing this week, following a Tuesday Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing on USF funding of rural broadband and a Wednesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing on broadband service mapping (see 1706140073, 1706150058 and 1706160015).
The Small Company Coalition urged the FCC "to fully fund" USF support for rate-of-return carriers, and suggested tapping the sizable Connect America Fund reserves. "[A]rtificial constraints placed on the RoR high cost mechanisms are needlessly harming the ability of carriers to deploy broadband, especially considering the collection and maintenance of significant CAF reserves," said the filing Thursday in docket 10-90 by the group, which is an alliance of RLECs and associated vendors. It said the Universal Service Administrative Co. has a CAF reserve balance of $1.84 billion, which has hovered around $2 billion since 2014 and is intended to prevent dramatic quarterly fluctuations. "Such reserves could help reduce costs associated with maintaining integrity in the USF and the savings could be better used to help fund the RoR mechanisms," said the SCC. The group asked the FCC to scrutinize the audit and review processes of its Office of Inspector General and USAC, which appear to have "substantial inefficiencies" and pass "unnecessary costs" to carriers. Separately, rural telco representatives asked the FCC not only to fully fund its original model-based USF offers but also to make "offers of model funding to RLECs whose model eligibility of funding was affected by clerical oversights," which they said would be "particularly efficient." Such model funding for the affected companies "would increase the number of prescribed broadband locations by 32% but only increase new model funding by 9% (compared to fully funding the original model offers)," said a filing by Vantage Point Solutions on a meeting it and others had with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai and Wireline Bureau staffers. A filing by rural electric groups and NTCA urged the FCC "to reject ViaSat's untimely proposal to modify" the agency's bidding weights for a planned CAF Phase II reverse auction of fixed broadband subsidies. A solo NTCA filing in docket 10-208 on a meeting with agency staffers discussed its proposal for the Mobility Fund Phase II challenge process. General Communication of Alaska discussed "hardship" under a USF rural healthcare spending cap and the need for a fix, said a filing in docket 02-60 on a meeting with aides to Pai and Commissioner Michael O'Rielly.
The Senate Communications Subcommittee's Tuesday hearing on the USF and its rural broadband deployment capabilities is likely to focus on whether problems affecting funding for broadband deployment in rural areas have been fixed, but it could also examine opportunities to expand use of USF for technologies like telehealth, said lawmakers and industry experts in interviews. The hearing is one of two on Capitol Hill this week on broadband deployment issues, with the House Communications Subcommittee planning a Wednesday hearing on the accuracy of the existing National Broadband Map data on unserved and underserved areas of the U.S., plus other mapping efforts (see 1706150058). The Senate Communications hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.
Sens. Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., bowed their Rural Broadband Deployment Streamlining Act Thursday with the aim of streamlining the Department of Interior and U.S. Forest Service approval processes for applications for broadband deployment rights of way (ROW) on federal property. The bill would set a 270-day clock for Interior and USFS to respond to all broadband easement and ROW applications. Any application the agencies didn't act on by that deadline would be deemed approved, and when the agencies deny an application they must notify the applicant of the reasons, Heller's office said. The bill also requires Interior and USFS to establish regulations for the applications process that reflect a “streamlined, consistent, and standardized process for application review,” Heller's office said. The legislation would direct the GAO to examine the accuracy of the National Broadband Map, determine whether the existing data is accurate and the extent to which the data affects rural broadband deployment grant awards. CTIA believes the bill would "accelerate deployment of next-generation 5G networks which will grow our economy by $500 billion, generate $275 billion in investment from the wireless industry, create 3 million new jobs and result in $160 billion in savings for local communities,” said Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Kelly Cole in a statement.
The Senate Communications Subcommittee plans a June 20 hearing on the USF and its “capabilities for deploying” broadband in rural areas of the U.S., the subcommittee said Wednesday. NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield, C Spire Senior Vice President-Strategic Relations Eric Graham and Charlesmead Advisors senior partner Michael Balhoff are to testify. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.
NTCA and USTelecom asked the FCC to give rural telcos broadband USF contribution relief while the agency seeks to revise the subsidy system's assessments of industry for funding. The commission should provide "targeted, temporary forbearance from the application of USF contribution requirements ... with respect to broadband Internet access transmission services provided by RLECs pending the completion of comprehensive USF contributions reform," they said in a petition Wednesday in docket 06-122. The groups sought the USF contribution relief for such RLEC broadband services until the commission decides whether any and all broadband services "should be required to contribute to support of federal USF programs or completes some other form of contributions reform." They said regulatory forbearance would have a "de minimis effect" on USF contributions. RLECs are being subjected to "discriminatory and anti-competitive treatment" under a 2005 wireline broadband order that allowed them to offer broadband on a common-carrier basis -- to recover costs for such service via access rates and USF -- but only if they agreed to make USF contributions, NTCA and USTelecom said. Other providers haven't been required to make USF contributions, even under the 2015 net neutrality order that reclassified broadband as a Communications Act Title II telecom service because the agency provided USF contribution forbearance, they said. A federal-state joint board is looking at USF contribution issues in an effort to make recommendations to the FCC for possible changes. The FCC, CTIA, NTCA and Public Knowledge didn't comment.
The FCC's proposed USF contribution rate for Q3 is 17.1 percent of carrier revenue from interstate and international telecom service end users, said the Office of Managing Director in a public notice Tuesday in docket 96-45. That would be down from Q2's 17.4 percent and the same as what industry analyst Billy Jack Gregg recently projected after Universal Service Administrative Co.'s latest revision to its estimates for USF demand and industry revenue (see 1706050008). If the FCC doesn't act within 14 days, the proposal will take effect.
The California Public Utilities Commission may oppose the FCC on wireline and wireless infrastructure NPRMs and notices of inquiry. California commissioners plan to vote Thursday on proposed staff comments to the FCC, said an agenda. Staff asked permission to comment that the FCC is “reading its authority more broadly than the statutory language warrants,” said the draft comments released Friday. “Plain language of §253(d) does not give the FCC the power to promulgate rules to preempt state and local regulations.” The FCC “must act through case-by-case adjudication, not a blanket peremptory rulemaking,” it said. Staff disagreed that the FCC should remove or reduce copper notice requirements. The federal regulator shouldn’t reduce from 180 days the waiting period for a certificate to terminate service, and should keep a prohibition on disclosing network change information until after public notice, the draft said. “Absent this rule[,] an ILEC planning to retire copper could notify an affiliate which could lay fiber where a competitor already has a wholesale agreement, potentially putting that competitor out of business.” The FCC should maintain protections ensuring that disabled customers can continue to communicate on IP networks, and shouldn’t remove 2015 standards for discontinuance of legacy services and replacement services, it said. “Customers might lose free access to 911, or service functionality or coverage, or access to relay service.” Also on the agenda for Thursday’s CPUC meeting, commissioners will vote on opening a rulemaking to consider whether text messaging is a telecom service that must pay into state USF and other programs (see 1705150040). And commissioners will vote on whether to extend until Aug. 23 the deadline to align state LifeLine with changes to the federal low-income program.
Alaska Communications Systems said USF management faces "an acute crisis" affecting the FCC Rural Health Care (RHC) Program. ACS said recent regulatory actions "demonstrate that a secondary goal, shrinking the contribution factor, may be taking precedence over the Communications Act’s mandate to increase access to universal service." Universal Service Administrative Co. and FCC decisions reducing funding by 7.5 percent for approved RHC projects "have put rural health care providers ('HCPs') in an untenable position, leaving them incapable of paying for services ordered, and leaving service providers uncertain of recovering their expenses," said a company filing in docket 02-60 Friday. "The FCC is now considering a proposal to further harm the RHC program by using RHC program reserves to temporarily reduce the contribution rate rather than support real needs for rural health care," said ACS, citing USAC as changing, "without explanation," its 3Q recommendation for funding RHC from contributions to the RHC reserve (see 1706050008). "It is troubling that the Commission might inadvertently cede a golden opportunity to improve broadband access for rural HCPs in exchange for a merely cosmetic change to the contribution line item." The telco asked the agency to hike RHC funding without increasing the contribution factor and without borrowing from the RHC reserve fund or a high-cost program account. The FCC and USAC didn't comment Monday.
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn spoke positively of state broadband privacy efforts, following Congress repealing 2016 FCC broadband privacy rules. "When over 90% of consumers feel like they have lost control over their personal information ... government has a role to play when it comes to the protection," she told a Southeastern Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners conference Monday, according to written remarks. "While I do not believe that any in the SEARUC member region have done so, over a dozen other states have introduced broadband privacy bills and I firmly believe that these federal and state privacy efforts do not have to be combative; they can be complementary. My goal of putting #ConsumersFirst holds true for privacy as well, which for me means that people and businesses who use broadband internet service should not reside in a regulation-free zone." FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and FTC acting Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen plan to harmonize internet privacy protections. Clyburn said FCC-proposed repeal of its 2015 broadband classification as a Communications Act Title II telecom service would "take away our strongest legal authority" for using USF to subsidize broadband, complicating "the fight to close the digital divide" and, potentially, state USF programs. She suggested it would be "mutually beneficial" for the FCC to adopt a nationwide Lifeline eligible telecom carrier application process accepted by all states. Clyburn said a Title II reversal also would add uncertainty to pole attachments and undercut FCC ability to use Section 253 to pre-empt state and local telecom barriers to tower siting and rights-of-way. She urged state regulators to work to reduce inmate calling service rates.