Stevens Says Resolving USF is Pathway to Telecom Bill
Telecom reform is possible if Senate Commerce Committee members can strike a deal on fixing the Universal Service Fund (USF), Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) said Tues. at a hearing on rural telecom. “We're close to getting some consensus that USF is going to survive; it’s going to be workable; it isn’t going to be a tax… and it’s going to be managed by the industries involved,” Stevens told reporters. He made clear USF shouldn’t come under Anti-Deficiency Act requirements that funds be in hand before agencies commit to spending them. Stevens said he expects to mark up a bill before Easter.
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The hearing focused on rural communities’ difficulty in gaining access to basic telecom services, especially on tribal lands. To solve part of the problem, Co-Chmn. Inouye (D-Hawaii) introduced a bill to clarify tribal libraries’ E- rate fund eligibility. The bill, co-sponsored by Stevens and Sens. Dorgan (D-N.D.), Burns (R-Mont.) and McCain (R-Ariz.), would require the Census Bureau to ask about Internet subscribership in residential households to get a more accurate picture of how many people are connected.
“We need to consider reforms that will strengthen current support mechanisms, rationalize our current system of intercarrier payments and eliminate opportunities for arbitrage,” Inouye said. Native Americans view telecom law changes “very seriously,” said Joe Garcia, pres.-National Congress of American Indians. The 1934 and 1996 laws left “tribal roles, needs and abilities unaddressed,” Garcia said: “This is one of the root causes why our lands lag far behind the rest of the nation in virtually every measure of communications connectivity.”
A Govt. Accountability Office report found substantially lower phone subscriber rates for Native American households on tribal lands. Compared with a national average of 98%, about 69% of Native American households in the lower 48 states have phone service and 87% of households in Alaskan native villages have phone service, the report said. The report said the FCC isn’t collecting enough data to “assess the extent to which its efforts to increase telecom deployment and subscribership on these lands are succeeding.”
Industries told the committee if USF is to be preserved, Congress needs to heed intercarrier compensation (ICC) reform. Several proposals before the FCC would enlarge USF, Qwest Vp-Legislative Affairs Lawrence Sarjeant said: “Congress can forestall this possibility by capping the USF immediately.” ICC is in “serious jeopardy,” said Ore. Public Utility Comr. Ray Baum, also chmn. of NARUC’s ICC task force. Baum told Stevens the group is near agreement and set to give a status report to the FCC today (Wed.). “ICC should be unified at rates that… are economically viable in a competitive environment,” Baum said, quoting from a task force proposal. States should get authority to set distribution of USF funds to eligible carriers, he said.
“There is the very real risk that broadband will not be deployed in many parts of rural America -- or it will not provide rural consumers the kind of access they need,” said Microsoft CTO Craig Mundie. One way to speed deployment is to adopt a “white spaces” bill Sen. Stevens proposed (CD Feb. 21 p1), he said. That bill would allow allocation of spectrum below 1 GHz for unlicensed uses, Mundie said. In areas so remote competition for multiple carriers isn’t possible, he suggested, Congress should consider using “reverse auctions” to set timetables for carriers getting USF support.