NTCA Presses FCC for Action on RLEC 'Rate Floor," Starting With Pause in Increases
NTCA urged prompt FCC action to address concerns about a USF "rate floor" that's having "continuing adverse effects" on consumers of rural telcos. "The rate floor policy yields no benefits with respect to managing universal service fund budgets, but at…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
this point -- after several years of serial rate increases -- is only harmful and disruptive to rural consumers, especially given that the lack of affordable standalone broadband services makes it more difficult for those same rural consumers to cease purchasing voice service even as it becomes increasingly expensive," the rural telco group said in a filing posted Monday in docket 10-90 on a "follow-on" conversation with an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. NTCA said "an immediate pause to any further rate floor increase would only help rural consumers and afford the Commission reasonable time to consider on a more informed basis any next steps with respect to the policy."