Rural telco groups again recommended the FCC hike their USF funding support, as replies were posted Monday and Tuesday in docket 10-90. NTCA repeated its call for providing additional funding for carriers that opted into the alternative connect America cost model (A-CAM) mechanism and for those receiving nonmodel support. "Budget shortfalls throughout the entirety of the RLEC High Cost program undermine the goals of the [March 2016] Rate-of-Return Reform order and threaten to leave far too many rural Americans with access only to substandard and/or unaffordable" broadband service, the group replied, citing a "unanimous record" in initial comments supporting additional funding (see 1702140043). The Eastern Rural Telecom Association's reply said it "strongly supports full funding" of both the A-CAM and nonmodel funding mechanisms. The reply of a group of Nebraska rural telcos said it supports funding A-CAM recipients at $200 per location, which it calculated would require $104 million a year, not the $110 million initial commenters cited, because some carriers elected not to receive the support. It disputed previous calls for "fully funding" the A-CAM mechanism. "The highest cost-companies have costs far in excess of $200 per location," said the Nebraska group. It nevertheless backed the $200 amount as a "realistic policy outcome" that "recognizes the Commission's budget limitations." It said calls for additional nonmodel support "are being addressed in a separate proceeding and thus are not germane" to the rulemaking.
NCTA urged Congress, in any infrastructure proposal, to identify “problem areas before spending money to fix them,” “deliver broadband to those who don’t have it,” offer “equal opportunities for all qualified broadband providers,” and accept “alternative technologies in remote areas,” in a blog post prior to a Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee hearing on infrastructure spending. Policymakers should guarantee “transparency and accountability to ensure government funds achieve intended results,” said NCTA, which isn’t testifying. The one witness at the hearing with a clear telecom focus is NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield. She and USTelecom President Jonathan Spalter offered what they called a “simple road map” for the broadband spending they recommend. “Rather than reinventing the wheel, let’s put to better use initiatives and programs that have worked in the past to enable the availability and sustainability of rural broadband,” they said in a blog post for The Hill. “Serious consideration should be given, for example, to leveraging the federal Universal Service Fund (USF) programs as part of any new broadband infrastructure initiative.” They urged Congress to streamline and kill regulatory barriers in the process. ITTA, NTCA, USTelecom and WTA joined earlier this week to send a letter with recommendations (see 1702270038). Public Knowledge Vice President-Government Affairs Chris Lewis sent a letter to committee leaders urging Congress to weigh "how to ensure affordable, reliable access for all Americans, to expand economic opportunity for all." Lewis pointed to what he called market failures: "While high prices have driven robust rates of return on capital investment for broadband providers, they have not led those providers to invest those profits into deployment to rural, unserved, and underserved communities." President Donald Trump pressed for an infrastructure proposal of up to $1 trillion but didn't offer precise details. He was expected to have addressed a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, and infrastructure is one topic slated for the speech. “I hope that the president will lay out what it is he wants to do,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Tuesday. “We don’t know exactly what approach he wants to take. From my standpoint, I’m interested obviously in how you would do any infrastructure plan that includes these private-public partnerships, or P3s as they call them, that work in more populated areas but how you would fund infrastructure in rural areas.”
The U.S. should auction most broadband subsidies "to catch up with the rest of the world," said American Enterprise Institute scholar Mark Jamison, who was on Donald Trump's presidential transition team for the FCC. Peru and Chile pioneered telecom subsidy auctions and much of FCC Connect America Fund support is now auctioned for high-cost areas, but such auctions should be expanded to other USF programs, he said in a Friday blog post. "The old E-Rate, Rural Health Care, Lifeline and some CAF programs would be dropped. E-Rate, Rural Health Care and some CAF programs would be rolled into a CAF Phase II-like reverse auction. Lifeline support would move to income subsidies." Other federal government broadband programs should be terminated, with funding channeled "through the new world-class FCC system," he wrote. "As Commissioner Michael O’Rielly recently observed, federal broadband spending must have integrity and efficiency. The best bet for accomplishing this is a revamped FCC system." Asked how many countries auctioned broadband subsidies, Jamison told us he didn't know, but said "it is considered best practice internationally."
A Vermont 911 case is raising legal and public policy questions about whether states can mandate backup-power requirements for wireless or interconnected VoIP carriers. Last week at the Public Service Board, some commented that federal statute bars states from making battery-backup mandates to either industry, and -- for wireline providers including VoIP -- that FCC existing backup power requirements make separate state rules unnecessary. A recent former California commissioner said in an interview it’s critical from a public policy standpoint for states and local governments to make their own decisions on communications network resiliency, including battery backup. A NARUC attorney disputed industry claims of federal pre-emption.
President Donald Trump seems receptive to prioritizing broadband access, potentially through his infrastructure proposal, senators who raised the issue with him told us. During last year’s presidential campaign, Trump invoked plans for an infrastructure stimulus of as much as $1 trillion, and this year several lawmakers from both chambers and parties pressed the White House to incorporate broadband funding through such a vehicle. Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., a key Trump liaison to the House, cautioned it’s too soon to say.
NTCA said FCC action is urgently needed to address two rural USF issues: "(1) the need for a technical correction to or clarification of the Capital Investment Allowance adopted in last year’s reforms; and (2) the continuing adverse effects upon consumers arising out of application of the 'rate floor' policy." NTCA advocacy on the issues was consistent with prior submissions, said a Tuesday filing by the rural telco group in docket 10-90 on a meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai.
Expect the Senate Commerce Committee to work on “Mobile Now-plus kind of ideas,” said GOP Telecom Policy Director David Quinalty Tuesday during an FCBA event. Senate Commerce cleared the reintroduced Mobile Now spectrum bill (S-19) last month, a key initiative for Chairman John Thune, R-S.D. The committee is believed to be eyeing a spectrum hearing at the Communications Subcommittee level for early March (see 1702100051).
USTelecom opposed Sandwich Isles Communications' petition for the FCC to reconsider and to set aside a Dec. 5 order imposing $27 million in repayment duties on the company for violations of the USF high-cost program in Hawaii (see 1701050068 and 1612060032). Sandwich Isles Communications (SIC) "has filed the Petition solely in an effort to avoid the penalties associated with the related Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture and Order that resulted from the findings in this Order and was released on the same day. Unfortunately for SIC, there are no new facts or arguments presented in their Petition that refutes the facts already presented," said USTelecom comments Thursday in docket 10-90.
The FCC circulated a draft Connect America Fund order Feb. 13, according to the agency circulation list updated Friday. A March 30 Further NPRM on rate-of-return telco USF issues had asked whether operating expenditure limitations should be modified for carriers serving tribal lands, said a commission spokesman. "This order addresses that question."
Boomerang Wireless asked the FCC to delay revoking its Lifeline broadband status until the agency or state regulators act on its long-pending petitions to become a USF-eligible telecom carrier (ETC) in numerous states. Boomerang said de-enrolling 17,538 affected Lifeline subscribers under the Wireline Bureau's Feb. 3 Lifeline broadband provider revocation order would be disruptive despite a 60-day transition given the company to migrate the customers to rivals. Some other providers criticized the FCC decision to revoke the LBP designations of nine companies, including Boomerang, pending further review (see 1702030070).