Senate Aging Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and ranking member Bob Casey, D-Pa., urged the FCC to vote down any Lifeline revamp proposal that would “bar or discourage resellers from participating.” The revamp NPRM adopted in November seeks comment on creating a self-enforcing budget cap, setting a maximum subscriber discount level and ending both federal designation of Lifeline broadband providers and pre-emption of states' role in designating some eligible telecom carriers (see 1711160021). Collins is the first Capitol Hill Republican to criticize the NPRM. Democrats have done so (see 1803080056, 1803210061, 1803300045, 1804260068 and 1805020061). “Fully implement prior reforms to protect the integrity” of Lifeline, including full implementation of the national verifier database, before taking up any further revamp plans, Collins and Casey ask in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai that we obtained. “Delay misguided proposals that attempt to address problems by prohibiting or discouraging wireless wholesalers from participating in the program.” If non-facilities-based providers “are excluded from the Lifeline program, about 8.3 million low-income households could lose their coverage,” the senators said. Close monitoring of USF expenditures “is essential,” but “we are concerned that the proposal to implement a self-executing budget cap will require a complex administrative apparatus,” the senators said. The FCC is "reviewing" the letter, a spokeswoman said.
Hargray Communications closed its buy of ComSouth, a small "integrated" telco serving middle Georgia, said a release Wednesday. The FCC approved related communications license transfers May 11 with a condition capping high-cost USF support based on Hargray's operating expenses to prevent potential cost shifting (see 1805110048).
The FCC would further streamline telecom service discontinuances and network changes under a draft wireline infrastructure order circulated by Chairman Ajit Pai for consideration at the June 7 commissioners' meeting (see 1805160051). Pai also plans votes on draft telecom items on rural telco broadband USF contribution relief, intercarrier compensation arbitrage in general, toll-free number arbitrage and fraud, IP captioned telephone service (IP CTS) rates and use, and telephone slamming and cramming.
The 5G item set for commissioners' June 7 meeting proposes to undo some restrictions on spectrum holdings and tie up other loose ends. The FCC released its draft order and Further NPRM Thursday, providing details beyond what Chairman Ajit Pai discussed in a Wednesday blog post (see 1805160051).
The pair of non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite applications on the June 7 commissioners' meeting agenda (see 1805160051) will likely get 4-0 approval and point to the FCC clustering future approvals, with others likely later this year, experts told us.
Lawmakers of both parties fretted over White House reversal on ZTE and discussed balancing supply chain security with avoiding protectionism, at a Wednesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said the committee should send a formal letter to the White House detailing its concerns about ZTE. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., hopes President Donald Trump’s comments on loosening sanctions against the Chinese smartphone maker were misinterpreted or that the stance changes. “We can’t play footsie with these companies,” Eshoo said.
The FCC will tackle the next stage of making high-band spectrum available for 5G, at its June 7 meeting, Chairman Ajit Pai blogged Wednesday on the next commissioners’ "summer blockbuster" meeting. Pai also plans to look to undo leased access rules adopted in 2008 but never implemented, ease legacy telecom service discontinuances, give rural telcos broadband USF contribution relief and OK Audacy and O3b satellite plans, two intercarrier compensation items, a toll-free texting item, an IP captioned telephone service (IP CTS) order, proposals targeting telephone slamming and cramming practices and an enforcement action he couldn't discuss.
Sixty-one senators and 130 House members wrote FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Tuesday urging the commission to institute a long-term budget fix for the USF high-cost program. Temporary funding infusions are welcomed, but “persistent limitations on resources can affect the ability of smaller broadband providers to deliver services in our country’s most rural communities,” the House and Senate lawmakers said in separate identically worded letters. “The FCC’s cost model for smaller operators electing model-based USF support is not yet funded at the designed levels, and carriers not receiving model-based support will once again face significant funding cuts when the program’s new fiscal year” begins July 1. They sought action on an NPRM and establishing "lasting solutions." NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield said "sufficient and predictable USF support is essential to provide the business case for private sector investment and to sustain these networks."
The FCC made available illustrative USF broadband cost model results to help parties prepare comments on a recent NPRM on rate-of-return telco high-cost funding (see 1803230025). The commission sought comment on "whether to provide a new model offer based on revised parameters to carriers that would receive less support under the model than under legacy rate-of-return support mechanisms," said a Wireline Bureau public notice Friday in docket 10-90. "It also sought comment on a proposal to exclude from the rate-of-return budget constraint mechanism an amount equal to 80 percent of a carrier’s new model offer." The PN had links to the Alternative Connect America Cost Model, its methodology and reports based on that model.
An FCC order and NPRM targeting Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for enhanced USF support could be released in the next few days, said a commission official. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly recently said he will support the item, after receiving assurances from Puerto Rico it will end 911 fee diversion (see 1805040034). Chairman Ajit Pai's draft seeks to provide $256 million in additional USF support and repurpose another $698 million to help restore and upgrade hurricane-damaged communications networks, with $750 million for Puerto Rico and $204 million for the U.S. Virgin Islands (see 1803060039).