Rural ILECs, not their competitors, are causing the increase in t...
Rural ILECs, not their competitors, are causing the increase in the universal service fund, representatives of Western Wireless told the FCC Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis in an ex parte meeting July 16. According to the ex…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
parte notice, Western Wireless Federal Govt. Affairs Dir. Mark Rubin and outside attorney Michele Farquhar told FCC staffers that competitive ETCs [eligible telecommunications carriers] such as Western Wireless weren’t causing the growth problem: “Excessive funding to rate-of- return ILECs is the problem… It is a painful problem that the FCC has postponed dealing with… but can postpone no longer.” Public data show “a $1.36 billion growth in projected annual high-cost universal service funds to ILECs over the past 7 calendar quarters, as opposed to a $121 million increase in projected annual high-cost funds to competitive ETCs,” Western Wireless said: “The primary drivers of the growth” are “the FCC’s RTF [Rural Task Force] and MAG [Multi-Assn. Group] decisions, both designed to enable rural ILECs to recover their revenue requirements established under the rate-of-return form of regulation.” Western Wireless suggested forming a Competitive Universal Service Task Force to help the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service analyze the issues and “work toward building consensus.”