FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he plans to circulate a draft order "later this year" intended to ensure rural carrier high-cost USF support is adequate and efficient over the long term. Noting a March NPRM, Pai agreed the commission "must take a close look at expanding access to and funding for our small-carrier cost model and that we must end the unpredictable cuts to carriers not on the model," said his response to a letter from Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., and 129 House colleagues (exchange posted Monday in docket 18-5). "Increased funding will boost broadband deployment in rural America, and additional reforms will put our high-cost system on a more efficient path so that every American can benefit from the digital revolution," he said. Pai cited recent FCC actions aimed at boosting RLEC high-cost USF support and rural healthcare support, responding to concerns from Reps. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and Peter Welch, D-Vt. (exchange). The chairman defended FCC efforts to better target Lifeline USF support and combat abuse in the program, responding to concerns of Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and 57 House colleagues about agency proposals (exchange). Pai cited FCC Lifeline and high-cost efforts to help Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands recover from hurricane damage, responding to the concerns of Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., and 47 House and Senate colleagues about the storm devastation and the Lifeline proposals' potential impact on the islands (exchange). Pai said the recent transfer of USF funds from a private bank to the U.S. Treasury "reduces risks" and maintains "rigorous management practices and regulatory safeguards," without disrupting revenue flows; he was responding to a letter from Gwen Moore, D-Wis., and eight House colleagues (exchange).
Wyoming won’t include Alternative Connect America Cost Model (A-CAM) support received by telecom companies as federal USF contributions offsetting state USF support. In a unanimous order Thursday, commissioners also affirmed the Public Service Commission’s May interim decision to raise the state USF contribution factor to 1.7 percent of intrastate revenue from 1.4 percent for the 12-month period that began July 1. During the proceeding in docket 14923, two small phone companies that get A-CAM support urged the PSC not to include the broadband funding as an offset in calculations (see 1806070028). Others including All West Communications -- which doesn't get A-CAM support -- said it should be included like other federal USF support mechanisms for high-cost local loops.
Tribal officials made the rounds at the FCC to seek changes on USF issues affecting tribal carriers. They "discussed enhancing the Universal Service high-cost and Lifeline programs for Tribal areas, Tribal sovereignty, operational expense relief reconsideration petitions and Warm Springs Telecom’s designation as the incumbent carrier for its community," said a GRTyree Consulting filing posted Wednesday in docket 10-90. Representatives of the National Tribal Telecommunications Association (NTTA), Mescalero Apache Telecom, Mescalero Apache Tribal Council, Fort Mojave Telecommunications, Gila River Telecommunications, Nez Perce Tribe, Saddleback Communications, Tohono O'odham Utility Authority, Warm Springs Tribal Council and Alexicon met with Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Brendan Carr, aides to all four commissioners, and staffers of the Wireline, Wireless and Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureaus and the Office of Native Affairs and Policy. The filing included a summary of tribal policy positions and data on tribal carrier USF details and the lag in broadband deployment on reservations. NTTA also backed Mescalero Apache Telecom and Sacred Wind Communications' petitions to reconsider FCC decisions on operating-expense limitation relief for certain carriers (see 1805310032).
Windstream supported dismissing a New Mexico probe into the carrier’s service quality (see 1802020052). In a Tuesday response in docket 17-00081-UT, Windstream agreed with a Friday recommendation by Public Regulation Commission staff to dismiss. Windstream asked the PRC to put several findings in the dismissal order. The PRC should say only the FCC may regulate Windstream broadband because it’s an interstate service, the PRC lacks jurisdiction over franchise fees, Windstream complied with state USF reporting requirements, and Windstream resolved service quality concerns flagged by the PRC, the company said. The PRC should say the telecom provider lost its midsized carrier status Sept. 30, 2016, when its access line count dipped below 50,000, meaning midsize carrier rules including on those service quality would no longer apply, Windstream said.
The Nebraska Public Service Commission expects CTIA to drop its appeal of a PSC order shifting state USF to connections-based contributions, a PSC spokesman said after commissioners voted 5-0 Tuesday for an order revising definitions for the contested order in docket NUSF-100. Adopting definitions from a Friday stipulation by CTIA, Cox and other Nebraska carriers, the PSC redefined connections-based contribution mechanism as “a fixed or flat rate surcharge assessed on a per-connection basis,” connection as “any form of technology used to provide an end-user with access to an assessable service” and assessable service as “any service subject to a contribution obligation” to Nebraska USF. The industry stipulation said the appeal by CTIA and other parties at the Nebraska Court of Appeals would end after the PSC adopted the definitions. The commission, meanwhile, is weighing USF rate design in docket NUSF-111. CTIA earlier pulled a similar lawsuit against the Utah PSC after reaching agreement with that agency (See 1807030046). CTIA didn't comment.
CenturyLink “strongly supports” a connections-based New Mexico USF surcharge, the ILEC commented Friday in docket 17-00202-UT at the Public Regulation Commission. “The current revenue-based approach is not sustainable or competitively neutral.” Connections would tie New Mexico USF “to a growing base rather than a declining revenue base,” and would be “relatively easy to implement, administer and enforce,” it said. It wouldn’t burden federal USF because it’s not dependent on providers’ classification of revenue as intrastate or interstate, CenturyLink said. But CTIA said New Mexico should maintain revenue-based USF contribution. Connections-based contribution is “regressive, imposing a larger burden on the consumers least able to pay it,” and could “create an illegal overlap with or a burden on the federal fund,” CTIA said. The PRC wouldn’t be able to assess prepaid customers who lack a direct and ongoing billing relationship with their providers, it said. PRC staff urged caution. “Any changes to the collection methodology for the revenue side of the Fund must not be speculative nor based on conjecture,” wrote PRC staff attorney Joan Ellis. “The Commission must have ‘substantial evidence’ to support a decision to adopt that new methodology.”
The FCC approved 175 rate-of-return telcos to get $36 million more in annual USF support, cumulatively, under an Alternative Connect America Cost Model, in exchange for extending broadband to additional locations, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 10-90 in Monday's Daily Digest. The RLECs accepted 210 of 217 state-level revised offers of model-based support made by the bureau implementing a March order (see 1805080028 and 1803230025). An accompanying report showed the revised amounts and deployment duties of carriers.
The FCC should eliminate USF silos to more efficiently target support, ex-Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said Monday at a livestreamed Next Century Cities broadband summit in Pittsburgh. Policymakers must balance broadband support for rural and urban areas, she and other current and former government officials said. Broadband issues shouldn’t divide political parties, they said, but Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Blair Levin noted the subject frequently ignites fights between Democrats and Republicans.
Stable FCC and other government subsidies are critical to sustaining Alaska’s General Communication Inc.'s investment in the state, General Counsel Tina Pidgeon said on C-SPAN’s The Communicators in a segment that was to have been televised Saturday. USF funding, including high-cost, E-rate and rural healthcare programs, must be predictable for GCI to spend money upgrading and extending services, she said: Alaska takes rural issues to “a different level,” with rugged terrain and low-population communities spread apart by thousands of miles. GCI uses microwave transport and LTE over satellite to serve the more difficult areas with broadband and wireless services, she said. Alaska regulators are weighing revamp of state USF (see 1805300054).
It's "extremely troubling" the FCC proposed a 15-year telco separations freeze "without any consideration of the recommendation" from federal-state joint board members, emailed Colorado Public Utilities Commissioner Wendy Moser, the state member who sponsored a NARUC-passed resolution backing a two-year freeze (see 1807180018). “Given that the majority of the Joint Board rests with the state members, and all that is needed for a recommended decision is a majority, the FCC should take the Joint Board recommended decision as submitted by the states. The FCC can then decide whether to adopt it or explain why not. ... Given the simplicity of the process, one has to wonder what the FCC is trying to accomplish in acting contrary to Congress' intent of having a Joint Board in the first place.”