The FCC would give rural telcos monthly model-based USF support of $200 per location if they adopt new commitments to build out 25/3 Mbps broadband, under a draft order issued Wednesday. It would also seek to firm up support for rate-of-return (RoR) carriers still on legacy support in exchange for increased 25/3 Mbps deployment. The tentative agenda issued for the Dec. 12 commissioners' meeting also includes draft items on a new high-band 5G spectrum auction, a communications market report, a quadrennial review, media modernization, a robocall-related reassigned number database (here) and wireless messaging classification (here), as announced Tuesday by Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1811200048).
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The FCC plans to launch a 2018 quadrennial review, classify wireless messaging as an information service, pave the way for a new high-band 5G auction, and provide rural telcos with new USF support in exchange for more deployment of 25/3 Mbps broadband, at the Dec. 12 commissioners' meeting. It's targeting votes on items to create a reassigned phone number database to help against unwanted robocalling, further "modernize" broadcast rules and issue a communications market report. The wireless messaging (including short message service or SMS) and auction items weren't among those previously expected (see 1811190047), with the first item now getting criticism.
Parties disagreed on the FY 2019 National Defense Authorization Act's fallout for an FCC's rulemaking to protect the communications supply chain from national security threats. The Telecommunications Industry Association said NDAA Section 889 requires the commission to bar certain suppliers from participating in its funding programs. Huawei -- one of the targeted suppliers -- and others said the recently enacted provisions give the FCC no mandate to impose supplier restrictions on USF support. NCTA suggested the commission defer action and consult with other agencies. Comments were posted through Monday on a public notice (see 1810260044).
FCC drafts on rural telco USF, robocalling, an eagerly awaited quadrennial review of media ownership rules and a communications market report appear among the items under consideration for commissioners' Dec. 12 meeting, we were told Monday. Some of those items were expected, including the QR (see 1811080063). Chairman Ajit Pai said in August he planned to circulate a draft order to ensure rate-of-return high-cost USF support is adequate and efficient (see 1807310034). FCC officials and others said a draft order is likely or could be on the tentative agenda Pai is expected to announce Tuesday.
A nearly two-hour Thursday meeting between FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, on USF Rural Health Care Program issues (see 1811150044) concluded with Sullivan's related hold remaining on Senate reconfirmation of Commissioner Brendan Carr to a full five-year term. The hold will continue at least through Congress' weeklong Thanksgiving recess. Sullivan acted in September (see 1809120056).
ORLANDO -- State regulators’ relationship with the FCC “needs some work,” said NARUC Second Vice President Paul Kjellander in an interview at the association’s annual conference this month. Federal USF contribution modification could raise tension next year if the FCC continues to exclude states from the process, he said. The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, holding its annual event concurrently with NARUC, remains concerned about deregulation and consumers losing protection as telecom technology moves to the IP world, NASUCA President Elin Swanson Katz told us.
NTCA wants the FCC to ensure Connect America Fund Phase II auction winners comply with eligible telecom carrier duties to offer a telecom service. Communications Act Section 214(e)(1) "indicates that only a telecommunications carrier ('TC') -- defined ... as a provider of a telecommunications service ('TS') (also defined in the statute) -- can be designated as an ETC," wrote Senior Vice President Mike Romano on a meeting with an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, posted Wednesday in docket 10-90: "(1) to receive USF, an entity must be an ETC; (2) to be an ETC, an entity must be a TC; and (3) to be a TC, an entity must offer a TS." The FCC (or state commission) reviewing ETC applications "cannot simply take at face value a claim that any given voice telephony service" is a telecom service, he said, seeking "a fact-specific analysis" to confirm telecom service offerings, "with detailed findings" on "tariffing or other indicators of public offering."
Lobbyists and other telecom officials are watching the outcome of the expected meeting between FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, on the senator's concerns about commission handling of the USF Rural Health Care Program. The meeting was in progress Thursday evening (see 1811140058), well after the chamber completed its expected final votes for the week. Sullivan's RHC concerns led him to place a hold on Senate confirmation of Commissioner Brendan Carr to a term ending in 2023 (see 1809120056). The hold, which has lasted since September, means the Senate also must wait to confirm Democratic FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks because the intent is to advance them as a pair (see 1809130059). Sullivan told us before the meeting he believes problems with FCC handling of RHC “extend way beyond Alaska,” telling us “other senators have expressed concerns” about such Pai moves. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who supports Sullivan's hold, told us she didn't plan to attend the meeting because of a scheduling conflict but Sullivan will brief her. “We need some certainty from the FCC” on its RHC decision-making progress, she said: “They can't just be determining arbitrarily what the rates may be. There needs to be some predictability.” Alaska-based GCI Communications appealed Wireline Bureau reduction in its FY 2017 RHC support by 26 percent to $77.8 million (see 1811130040). Pai didn't address the dispute with Sullivan and Murkowski during a Thursday news conference after commissioners met, and Carr and Commissioner Mike O'Rielly weighed in on general RHC issues. All USF programs “need predictability,” Carr told reporters. “We need to push for providing predictable support for needs like rural clinics.” O'Rielly said he's “raised concerns” about Universal Service Administrative Co. management in the past and has proposed privatization and other potential solutions.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, told reporters he will meet Thursday with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on the senator's concerns with commission handling of the USF Rural Health Care Program that led him to place a hold on Senate confirmation of Commissioner Brendan Carr to a term ending in 2023, as expected (see 1809120056). A planned October meeting between Sullivan and Pai was postponed after the Senate moved to adjourn early for campaigning (see 1810110062). “Hopefully, we'll get to a spot” where concerns about FCC handling of RHC are “resolved,” Sullivan said. Alaska-based GCI Communications appealed this week Wireline Bureau's reduction in its FY 2017 RHC support by 26 percent to $77.8 million (see 1811130040). “This isn't just about” GCI, Sullivan said. “This is about broader issues of predictability, transparency, how we're going to move forward on this writ large.” Sullivan's hold means the Senate must wait to confirm Democratic FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks because the intent is to advance the two as a pair (see 1809130059). Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters he's “trying to work with” Sullivan and the FCC “to see if there's some arrangement that can be worked out or some way that we can get this resolved” to allow confirmation of Carr and Starks this year. The agency didn't comment.
GCI Communications asked the FCC to reverse a Wireline Bureau reduction in its USF Rural Health Care Program support by 26 percent to $77.8 million for FY 2017 (see 1810110062). The decision "prescribes rates $28 million below those determined through competitive bidding in a competitive market -- which were also in line with commercial rates for comparable services, and supported by GCI cost studies -- and imposes an unstated methodology for FY2018 and FY2019," said an application for review posted Tuesday in docket 17-310, after GCI criticism of the cut (see 1810120057). Absent full commission review, the bureau order "will have dramatic and far-reaching consequences" for the RHC program, said the application. "The FCC has been a steadfast partner" in efforts to improve rural service, "which is why the abrupt reduction was so unexpected and puzzling," said GCI General Counsel Tina Pidgeon, calling the bureau decision "a disincentive" to Alaska carrier investment.