Clyburn Concerned About Size of USF Mobility Fund
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn is pressing other FCC members to look more closely at the appropriate size of a proposed Mobility Fund as the agency completes its Universal Service Fund proceeding, her wireless aide, Louis Peraertz, told a Federal Communications Bar Association lunch Thursday. Elsewhere, aides to the four commissioners mostly talked about spectrum, with several conceding that spectrum sharing will be the trend of the future.
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Peraertz said Clyburn has been contacting her fellow commissioners about the Mobility Fund. “Commissioner Clyburn is carefully reviewing the item with regard to mobility to ensure that it adequately addresses the concerns of rural wireless consumers,” he said. “We've been having what we believe to be constructive conversations with all of the offices on that.” Other commissioner aides did not comment on whether the Mobility Fund as proposed in the original ABC Plan is too small.
CTIA weighed in this week, saying wireless will get much less support under reform proposals than carriers currently receive (CD Oct 19 p1). Small wireless carriers have also been active on that issue.
"USF is something that this commission has been working on very hard for a very long time” said Amy Levine, wireless aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski. “The offices have all been very busy with the item.” Genachowski “recognizes that advanced mobile services are an essential part of universal service in the 21st Century,” she said.
"The biggest priority” for Commissioner Robert McDowell “is not increasing the size” of the fund, said Angela Giancarlo, chief of staff. “All of the interested parties are coming in and making a case about why they need more. From our perspective, it’s a pie and if your slice increases someone else’s is going to decrease, but it doesn’t mean that everyone gets more.”
Giancarlo urged the commission to wrap up proceedings on medical spectrum allocations. The Alfred Mann Foundation has a longstanding request to allocate 20 MHz of spectrum in the 413-457 MHz band for wirelessly connecting neuromuscular microstimulators implanted in patients who suffer from brain and spinal cord injuries and neuromuscular disorders. GE Medical Systems has a separate medical spectrum proposal before the agency. “We're really hoping that we can get that wrapped up this year,” Giancarlo said. “We view that as being a win for the agency, as well as humanity.” Levine said in response, “We're looking at it,” but did not commit to a timeline.
The FCC officials conceded that meeting the Administration’s goal of identifying 300 MHz of spectrum in five years won’t be easy. All stressed the importance of spectrum sharing. “I think it’s always a challenge,” Levine said. “There just are not any more any large chunks of spectrum that are free and clear that can be auctioned or allocated to other purposes. … It’s one reason the chairman is so supportive of voluntary incentive auction concept.”
Commissioner Michael Copps is interested in “technical ways” of making better use of using spectrum already available to carriers, said his chief of staff, Mark Stone. “Also, Commissioner Copps is very interested in making sure that existing spectrum holders are using that spectrum well and in using it in the first place.” Peraertz said the FCC must complete its work in the TV white spaces proceeding.
Sharing spectrum is critical and cognitive technologies could help, Giancarlo said. “The rallying cry of `we need more spectrum’ is very easy, and everyone understands it,” she said. “But at the same time, there are remedies in the marketplace right now to be able to maximize efficiency and spread the consumer benefits.” More could be done, Giancarlo said. “Is the FCC or someone else going to have to get into looking at receiver standards?” she asked. “That really is the most nettlesome piece to me in the LightSquared debate. You've got decades of old equipment out there,” she said. “What do you do, knock on people’s doors and say your farming equipment that you invested a lot of money in 10 years ago isn’t going to work anymore?”