The FCC plans a USF webinar Jan. 24 tailored to state and local government officials, said a Consumer and Governmental Affairs public notice Tuesday. The 2-3 p.m. EST webinar will provide an overview of how telecom subsidy funds are raised and distributed among the USF Connecting America (high cost), E-rate (schools and libraries), Lifeline (low income) and rural healthcare programs, said the PN, which had further details on registering for the event (a registration link can be copied and pasted if clicking on it doesn't work).
Arizona should tap the state USF to bring broadband to rural students, said Arizona Corporation Commissioner Andy Tobin. In a Monday letter in docket RT-00000H-97-0137, Tobin supported Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s call for high-speed internet in rural and tribal areas. Tobin proposed a partnership with the governor, state superintendent and nonprofit EducationSuperHighway to create a state match of rural broadband funds for schools and libraries totaling $8 million to $13 million, the state commission said in a Tuesday news release. Tobin proposed a one-time distribution of $8 million from the Arizona USF to support the state match. The state match could help school districts obtain an estimated $80 million to $100 million in federal E-rate Category One funding, but Arizona must act quickly to meet a likely April deadline to submit funding applications to Universal Service Administrative Co., he said. To make the deadline, the state commission should open an emergency rulemaking, he said. Later this year, the commission should open another rulemaking examining the high-cost portion of the state USF, he said. “There is a real and troubling digital divide when it comes to internet access in our urban and rural areas,” Tobin wrote. “Every student must be afforded the same opportunity to learn, including those who live on tribal lands, in some inner city areas, or in the most remote reaches of the state.” Ducey said in the governor’s State of the State address Monday that “too many students, specifically in our rural areas, and in our tribal nations, are missing out. It’s 2017, but outside of our urban areas, broadband is still spotty. Let’s fix this, by connecting these rural schools to high-speed internet.” The proposed program will be discussed at a commission staff meeting Wednesday at 10 a.m. MST, the commission said.
FCC staff ruled that eligible telecom carriers must allow Lifeline-eligible customers to apply their low-income USF discounts to stand-alone broadband internet access service (BIAS) if the ETCs offer such service and are subject to USF "high-cost public interest broadband obligations." The clarification renders moot a petition for temporary waiver that was filed by NTCA and WTA, which was dismissed, said an order in docket 11-42 from the Wireline Bureau listed in Monday's Daily Digest. "ETCs that do not have a standalone BIAS offering in areas where they receive high-cost support are not required to create a new standalone Lifeline BIAS offering" under the FCC's March Lifeline overhaul order, the new order said. "Rather, recipients of high-cost support may meet their broadband public interest obligations by offering BIAS as part of a bundle with voice or on a standalone basis, at the carrier’s discretion." But the bureau said if an ETC offers stand-alone broadband in an area where it receives high-cost support, it must allow eligible consumers to apply their Lifeline discount to that service.
News Friday that Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., will lead the House Communications Subcommittee (see 1701060001) sparked a range of reactions from industry observers. They foresaw the potential for her to take action on what have often been partisan priorities on net neutrality and municipal broadband. She succeeds Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., the new chair of Commerce, and was seen as having the edge among Commerce Republicans for the positions (see 1612300029), with people judging her both knowledgeable and effective but also divisive. The subcommittee overseeing the FTC also got a new head who is known to FCC watchers: Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio. Blackburn, an executive vice chairwoman for the transition team of President-elect Donald Trump, pledged last month the new Congress would get started on net neutrality legislation soon.
Atlanta attorney Carolyn Roddy was added to the Trump transition's FCC landing team, according to its landing team roster, which is updated periodically. Roddy, who has FCC and telecom industry experience, is an adjunct professor at Atlanta's John Marshall Law School and a board member of the Georgia Technology Authority, which manages delivery of IT services to state and local government agencies and entities.
Sandwich Isles Communications asked the FCC to set aside and reconsider its order imposing $27 million in repayment duties on the company for violations of the USF high-cost program in Hawaii (see 1612060032). The Dec. 5 order should be set aside so parties can address its potential effects on end users at the same time as parties consider a $49.6 million fine the commission proposed for the company in an accompanying notice of apparent liability, said an SIC petition for reconsideration posted Thursday in docket 10-90. "Because of the interrelationship of this Order with the [NAL] issued on the same day, considerations of fundamental due process require that the Commission allow interested parties to comment on the issues and implications of this Petition for Reconsideration in the context of, and at the same time as, the comments due under the NAL." The order also should be set aside because it's "directly contrary to the unrebutted factual evidence submitted by SIC and constitutes administrative action that is arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law," it said. "The lone 'support' for the Commission’s [main] finding is a final audit report prepared by the Universal Service Administrative Company ('USAC'). This report, however, entirely ignored the unrebutted factual evidence submitted by SIC that demonstrates that the $26,320,270 in alleged ['Category 1'] overpayments is wildly overblown." SIC said the FCC never addressed the carrier's findings, confirmed by an independent telecom consulting firm, that the maximum amount of alleged Category 1 overpayments was only $4.1 million. "By ignoring this evidence, the Commission acted arbitrarily and capriciously," SIC said. FCC officials had no comment, including aides to Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mignon Clyburn, who issued a joint statement Dec. 5 endorsing the order.
Parties offered a jumble of views on possible telecom deregulation in biennial review reply comments posted Tuesday and Wednesday in various dockets, including 16-132. Wireline and wireless telcos and others generally proposed the commission repeal numerous rules in initial comments (see 1612060072). Republican Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly, who will gain the majority under incoming President Donald Trump, have voiced enthusiasm for clearing what they term "regulatory underbrush," raising the profile of the proceeding (see 1612070040 and 1611030042).
Arvig Enterprises said it's opting to detariff the consumer broadband-only loop service of its incumbent local telcos effective Feb. 1. The telco holding company is making the cost-allocation move under the FCC March rate-of-return USF overhaul order, it told the commission Friday. That order allowed ILECs to choose "permissive detariffing" in recovering a portion of their loops costs when providing broadband-only service, said Arvig's filings in docket 02-33 notifying the commission of the decision covering its 14 incumbents. Arvig said the detariffing affected only its own ISP, which purchases transmission services from the ILEC units as an input for its retail broadband services. "The provision of the Consumer Broadband Only loop service as a detariffed service will have no effect on the end-user services provided by the Company's affiliated ISP," said the filings. Arvig is the third largest local carrier in Minnesota, a company representative told us Tuesday. Other rate-of-return ILECs have also taken advantage of the detariffing option.
The FCC Wireline Bureau rejected an appeal from the Harrisburg City School District in Pennsylvania of a Universal Service Administrative Co. decision that the district and its service provider, EMO Communications, must repay E-rate funds. The district’s former director of information technology was convicted of taking bribes from an EMO official and falsely certifying that EMO provided the system with E-rate supported services and equipment. Both the former school employee and EMO official were sent to prison and ordered to make restitution, the bureau said in a Friday order. USAC issued a "Notification of Improperly Disbursed Funds Letter to Harrisburg and EMO seeking to recover $2,885,475 (the $5,050,431 that was wrongly disbursed minus the $2,164,956 that was ordered to be paid in restitution),” the order said. The bureau upheld the decision by USAC. “The Commission has a duty to protect” the USF “against waste, fraud, and abuse, and such a duty requires us to seek recovery where, as in this case, the beneficiary bears the responsibility for a rule or statutory violation,” the bureau said. The school district didn't comment.
The FCC Wireline Bureau is seeking comment on the 2005 waiver that allows Sandwich Isles Communications to be treated as an ILEC for purposes of receiving high-cost USF support. The carrier faces $77 million in repayment duties and proposed fines from the FCC for violations and apparent violations of the USF high-cost program in Hawaii (see 1612060032). The Tuesday notice in docket 10-90 said as part of the earlier “Sandwich Isles Improper Payment Order,” the FCC instructed the bureau to seek comment from the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, the Department of Hawaiian Homelands “and all other interested stakeholders on whether Sandwich Isles’ previously granted study area boundary waiver should be terminated." Comments are due at the FCC Feb. 3. The company didn't comment on the notice.