Questioning from House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Tuesday focused on whether and how Congress channels broadband infrastructure funding. She asked if money should go through USF or elsewhere -- or if it should be “expanded to include a grant-making operation?” President Donald Trump pressed for a $1 trillion infrastructure package this Congress. Blackburn and others said broadband must be a part of this vehicle and debated details of legislative tools available, during Tuesday’s hearing (see 1703200067).
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said she's concerned a "poor tax" could be imposed on low-income beneficiaries of the Lifeline USF subsidy program to ensure they have "skin in the game." She also criticized the agency's Republican leadership for protecting "free data" and innovative offerings for general consumers without making similar commitments for low-income recipients and while undoing Lifeline broadband provider (LBP) designations.
The FCC made corrections and technical tweaks to a 2016 rate-of-return USF order, in a rule summary in Monday's Federal Register. The changes took effect Monday. Separately, the FR is scheduled to publish Tuesday a rule summary of the commission's recent order on a planned Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction of $1.98 billion in fixed broadband subsidy support over 10 years (see 1702230019), according to an unpublished version. The order setting bid weights and some other details for the CAF I reverse auction will take effect 30 days after FR publication, which would be April 20.
Sandwich Isles Communications made its case to FCC officials against agency actions targeting the carrier for violations and alleged violations of high-cost USF rules in Hawaii, but the company also sought a way to address commission concerns. SIC representatives cited the "substantive and procedural defects" of a commission Dec. 5 order directing the Universal Service Administrative Co. to recover $27.3 million in subsidy support the company received. They also cited "the inconsistencies" of that order with a related notice of apparent liability proposing to fine SIC $49.6 million (see 1612060032), said a filing Monday in docket 10-90 on meetings with staffers of Chairman Ajit Pai, Commissioner Michael O'Rielly and the Wireline Bureau. Meeting participants discussed ensuring continued telecom services in the Hawaiian Home Lands (HHL) and USF program integrity, plus SIC's role in the HHL and "a process to resolve the perceived issues that would protect the interests of the Native Hawaiians," the filing said.
FCC staff set procedures for filing annual access charge tariffs and tariff review plans (TRPs) for price-cap incumbent local exchange carriers and rate-of-return ILECs. A Wireline Bureau order Thursday in docket 17-65 "sets an effective date of July 1, 2017, for the July 2017 annual access charge tariff filings made on 15 days’ notice; sets a modified effective date of July 3, 2017, for the July 2017 annual access charge tariff filings made on 7 days’ notice; establishes the dates for filing petitions to suspend or reject an [ILEC] tariff filing and replies to such petitions; and addresses service of the petitions and replies." The order also set May 17 as the date for price-cap ILECs to file short-form TRPs. The FCC's 2011 USF-intercarrier compensation overhaul order requires ILECs "to adjust, over a period of years, many of their switched access charges effective on July 1 of each of those years," the bureau said.
Aspiring Lifeline broadband providers and others urged the FCC to reinstate nine companies whose LBP designations were revoked by a Wireline Bureau order that Chairman Ajit Pai defends. State regulators opposed reinstatement and urged the commission to repeal its LBP process, which they say illegally bypasses state authority to designate carriers eligible for the USF Lifeline subsidies. LBP aspirants urged the FCC to at least make providers eligible for the program's low-income support in states where the federal commission has jurisdiction. Parties filed comments posted Thursday and Friday in docket 11-42 on requests to reconsider the Feb. 3 revocation order (see 1702030070 and 1703020059).
FCC staff granted two waivers from an invoicing deadline in the E-rate USF program subsidizing school and library broadband/telecom services and connections. The Wireline Bureau waived a requirement that E-rate applicants seek an extension before an invoice filing deadline applying to those "for whom the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) had not, as of October 31, 2016, issued the FCC Form 498 ID, and who therefore were unable to submit an invoice." The bureau directed USAC to grant such applicants a 30-day extension. It also granted a rule waiver "for several petitioners that properly requested an invoice deadline extension but failed to timely file their invoice filings due to circumstances beyond their control, including USAC’s inability to timely process their invoice deadline extension requests," in an order Thursday in docket 02-6.
Sandwich Isles Communications hit an FCC proposal to initiate proceedings to revoke the carrier's licenses, including under Communications Act Section 214. The commission's Dec. 5 notice of apparent liability against the company for alleged USF violations "is based on a series of premises that are factually and legally unfounded," SIC said in comments posted Thursday in docket 16-405 responding to a Feb. 14 public notice (see 1702140063). "The more this proceeding moves along, the more transparent the Commission’s motives become, that is, to put SIC out of business to the detriment of the people of the Hawaiian Home Lands ('HHL') based on the FCC’s prejudgments rather than the actual evidence and law." The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission said it didn't object to the FCC initiating revocation proceedings against SIC licenses. The HPUC "shares the FCC's commitment to maintain service to all customers on Hawaiian Home Lands, and stands ready to work with the FCC to take appropriate action and coordinate efforts to ensure that said service will be provided," the regulator commented. Scores of individuals in the docket generally supported SIC.
Recent changes to the USF high-cost fund resulting in a budget shortfall will mean fewer areas without broadband will be reached, delivering comparatively lower speeds and higher rural consumer broadband rates, said Kurt Gruendling, vice-president-marketing and business development at Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom (WCVT) in Vermont and on behalf of NTCA, in testimony prepared for a House Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Subcommittee hearing Thursday. "This budget shortfall cuts support to companies like WCVT that still need to upgrade portions of their network, and it thus undermines the ability of committed companies like WCVT to deliver -- and keep delivering -- on the promise of broadband that creates Smart Rural Communities," he said, referring to the NTCA initiative to deploy broadband-enabled applications to improve community services. It's just as critical to sustain network infrastructure and affordability of services, citing challenges of distance and density, he said. Otherwise, he said rural Americans don't get the benefits of broadband and it's a "terrible waste of resources" to build it. The hearing focused on how communities use technologies to serve their residents in various ways. Other witnesses included representatives from Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Pittsburgh; and Portland, Oregon.
Arizona Corporation Commissioners voted unanimously to adopt a state broadband fund for rural schools. At an ACC meeting Tuesday, they approved amendments to state USF rules to set up the $8 million state-matching fund, which will allow Arizona to take advantage of up to $100 million in federal E-rate Category One funding for broadband (see 1701300033). The commission released a proposed order March 7, but the final decision wasn't immediately available Tuesday. In the days leading up to the vote, companies continued to demand limits on fund distribution. In Monday comments, Cox urged the commission to say funding is for last-mile projects only and not for overbuilding. The ACC should make clear that the agency isn't extending its regulatory authority to broadband services, the cable operator said.