The FCC should immediately end the ‘identical support rule,’ now ...
The FCC should immediately end the “identical support rule,” now that the Joint Board on Universal Service has said it shouldn’t be continued, the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association said in a letter to the FCC. The rule gives a…
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competitive telecom company, usually a wireless provider, the same level of universal service subsidies as the incumbent local wireline carrier in an area. “Given the endorsement from the Joint Board to eliminate equal support, there is no reason why the FCC should not move forward immediately with an order,” NTCA CEO Michael Brunner said in the Sept. 13 letter. As a step toward ending the equal treatment, the FCC could stop giving “access replacement support” to wireless competitors, which would reduce outlays from the Universal Service Fund nearly $520 million a year, the letter said. This form of support is tied to access services, which wireless carriers don’t even provide, Brunner said. “High-cost universal service funding designed to replace legitimate access cost recovery should not be available to wireless CETCs that do not impose access charges,” he said. This would be “a reasonable interim step while the Commission collects the detailed cost information from wireless carriers necessary to establish support for each carrier in each area served,” the letter said. CETC stands for competitive eligible telecommunications carrier, a term for competitors eligible for universal service subsidies.