FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will recommend raising the USF contribution rate and sending more money to schools and libraries, if that’s necessary, he told a meeting of the Council of Chief State School Officers in Washington Monday. “I will recommend this to my colleagues if warranted,” Wheeler said, according to prepared remarks (http://fcc.us/1qMDLLo) for the event, which was not open to the public. “But my colleagues and I can’t just pour more money into the program as it presently stands,” he said. “The first step in expansion is introspection."

Two Senate Republicans want the FCC to move forward on the USF’s $100 million Remote Areas Fund. Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire wrote a letter, dated Thursday, to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, saying: “If implemented correctly, RAF could potentially provide the most rural areas of the country, including the most rural parts of New Hampshire and Missouri, with access to advanced broadband services” (http://1.usa.gov/1fAJvU9). “We are encouraged that the Commission’s recent IP transitions item included a commitment to address the challenges of providing service to the most remote, unserved areas of the country by the end of 2014,” wrote Ayotte and Blunt. “Please provide us an update as to how the Commission plans to implement the $100 million annual RAF portion within the Universal Service Fund this year."

Two Senate Republicans want the FCC to move forward on the USF’s $100-million Remote Areas Fund. Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire wrote a letter, dated Thursday, to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, saying: “If implemented correctly, RAF could potentially provide the most rural areas of the country, including the most rural parts of New Hampshire and Missouri, with access to advanced broadband services” (http://1.usa.gov/1fAJvU9). “We are encouraged that the Commission’s recent IP transitions item included a commitment to address the challenges of providing service to the most remote, unserved areas of the country by the end of 2014. Please provide us an update as to how the Commission plans to implement the $100 million annual RAF portion within the Universal Service Fund this year.”

Retiring the copper networks still used by millions of Americans will remove choice from the market, FCC acting General Counsel Jon Sallet said at a Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy event Wednesday. That’s why it’s so important to “learn” by having IP transition trials “before legal and policy decisions are made,” Sallet said. The agency has received two service experiments and nearly 1,000 expressions of interest in rural broadband experiments, he said, and the experiments will “enhance the ability of the commission, network providers, consumers, competitors and the public to monitor and measure the impact of change."

Public TV stations are weighing several options concerning the upcoming broadcast incentive auction, we found after asking all noncommercial educational (NCE) broadcasters in the top 30 designated market areas about their plans. Most don’t wish to relinquish their spectrum, while others haven’t ruled out any options and are still monitoring developments at the FCC, they said. For some stations, channel sharing isn’t feasible, but interest may be piqued if the channel-sharing trial between Los Angeles TV stations KLCS, a public-TV station, and KJLA is successful. The test is backed by CTIA.

Dozens of rural telcos submitted “expressions of interest” to the FCC in filings this week, indicating they would love to accept some of the money the agency is prepared to dole out for rural broadband experiments. The agency voted 5-0 earlier this year to approve IP technology transition trials, including rural broadband experiments (CD Jan 31 p1). Interest in participating in these projects has so far dwarfed interest in participating in service-based experiments. That effort has seen only a few applicants.

Dozens of rural telcos submitted “expressions of interest” to the FCC in filings this week, indicating they would love to accept some of the money the agency is prepared to dole out for rural broadband experiments. The agency voted 5-0 earlier this year to approve IP technology transition trials, including rural broadband experiments. Interest in participating in these projects has so far dwarfed interest in participating in service-based experiments. That effort has so far seen only a few applicants.

The White House included provisions on school and rural broadband, spectrum license fees, the FCC’s USF and more in its proposed $3.9 trillion 2015 budget, partially revealed Tuesday in a 218-page document and requiring the approval of Congress (http://1.usa.gov/1c5yFWg). It would include a $56 billion Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative, which promises funding toward various goals in this sphere. The administration will roll out its budget in two phases, the first of which started Tuesday, and then post some other parts a week later. Congressional Republicans have already complained of the broader details.

The White House included provisions on school and rural broadband, spectrum license fees, the FCC’s USF and more in its proposed $3.9 trillion 2015 budget, partially revealed Tuesday in a 218-page document and requiring the approval of Congress (http://1.usa.gov/1c5yFWg). It would include a $56 billion Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative, which promises funding toward various goals in this sphere. The administration will roll out its budget in two phases, the first of which started Tuesday, and then post some other parts a week later. Congressional Republicans have already complained of the broader details.

USTelecom and some of its member telcos met with FCC Wireline Bureau officials Feb. 20 to discuss eligible telecom carrier status as the FCC implements Connect America Fund Phase II in territories served by price cap carriers, said an ex parte filing posted Thursday (http://bit.ly/1fLO4KK). The ILECs discussed how to ensure obligations and funding are “appropriately matched” while avoiding consumer disruption. The groups discussed “how this can be achieved with the coming charge from very broad geographic support under legacy programs to the CAF II program’s targeting of universal service support to very narrow, discrete geographic areas for specifically defined services,” the filing said, without going into further detail.