Tension exists between language in the Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation order that requires all frozen support be used for network investment while stating frozen interstate access support (IAS) funding will continue to be treated as legacy IAS, lawyers for AT&T reported telling FCC Wireline Bureau officials Monday (http://xrl.us/bmy4wd). The telco said it supports USTelecom’s position that providers should “immediately be relieved of their legacy eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) designations and obligations where and when they do not receive high-cost support,” said the ex parte filing. The company wants the commission to clarify that new reporting requirements don’t apply to competitive ETCs and frozen support recipients whose high-cost support is being eliminated; that tribal contact requirements apply only to recipients of Tribal Fund support; and that, when the new standardized federal reporting rules apply to a ETC, the commission will preempt all legacy state universal service fund reporting requirements that would otherwise apply to that ETC.
Nothing brings disparate interests together like the prospect of a six-month extension to comply with new FCC rules. Often at odds, post-paid wireline carriers, pre-paid wireless carriers and state commissions unanimously supported a waiver request by incumbent local exchange carriers to postpone until Oct. 1 the implementation of several rules established in the Lifeline Order -- as long as the waiver applies to everyone else, too. The petition, filed by USTelecom, the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, NTCA, OPASTCO, the Western Telecommunications Alliance and the Eastern Rural Telecom Association, asked the FCC to waive the effective date of a new rule implementing a flat $9.25 Lifeline benefit and eliminating the Link-Up discount on non-Tribal lands from April 2 until Oct. 1 (CD March 12 p9).
A European Commission roadmap for the future of satellite navigation system Galileo and the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS) began moving through the European Parliament Wednesday. Lawmakers in the Industry, Research and Energy Committee said they're generally enthusiastic about the programs, which are seen as a way to boost European growth, competitiveness and clout, but they remain wary about the cost overruns that have plagued Galileo. Questions about financing and governance remain, they said.
OLED materials developer Novaled filed an IPO seeking to raise up to $200 million, capping a three-year quest to go public that was sidelined by the global economic crisis. The German company, which has Samsung Mobile Displays (SMD) and LG Display among its customers, develops organic conductivity doping technology that’s designed to improve the injection and transport of electrical charges to the emission layer in an OLED stack. The doping technology, combined with Novaled’s proprietary host materials, improves the conductivity of transport layers, the company said. It had planned to file for an IPO in second half 2008 (CED May 25/07 p3).
The FCC, which has reformed some of its other Universal Service Fund programs, will continue to work toward completing all of its reform efforts, including reform of the rural healthcare program, Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett said at a Broadband Breakfast Club briefing Tuesday. Other speakers cited healthcare licensing regulations and outdated healthcare infrastructure as barriers to expanding broadband-enabled healthcare.
The FCC, which has reformed some of its other Universal Service Fund programs, will continue to work toward completing all of its reform efforts, including reform of the rural healthcare program, Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett said at a Broadband Breakfast Club briefing Tuesday. Other speakers cited healthcare licensing regulations and outdated healthcare infrastructure as barriers to expanding broadband-enabled healthcare.
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell understands rural carriers’ concerns about cost recovery when the new Universal Service Fund rules start phasing in July 1, he said Monday. “As this thing gets phased in, if there are fundamental systemic issues, we will take corrective action,” he said during a wide-ranging Q-and-A session with NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield at NTCA’s legislative and policy conference. That’s one of the benefits of the “iterative” nature of the Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation order, he said.
Republicans in the House and FCC took aim at Chairman Julius Genachowski for his proposal to require broadcasters to post political files online. At a budget hearing Monday of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services, the plan was criticized by Chairman Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., and FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. Genachowski defended the FCC’s authority to make the change and highlighted the commission’s progress freeing up spectrum and deploying broadband.
Sprint Nextel offers 3G or better service in 12,400 of the census blocks the FCC lists as “unserved” and thus eligible for Universal Service Fund support under phase one of the new Mobility Fund, the carrier said in a filing (http://xrl.us/bmyfhf). Sprint submitted the list of blocks to the FCC for further study. “Eliminating overlapping census blocks will help ensure that the Commission’s policy of providing Mobility Fund Phase I support only ‘where no provider currently offers [3G or higher] service’ is met,” Sprint said. Cellular Network Partnership, serving parts of Oklahoma and Kansas, also found similar problems with the data in the areas it serves, as did WUE, Inc., a carrier in Nevada. CV Cellular of Warren, Okla., said it offers 3G service in 76 supposedly unserved census blocks (http://xrl.us/bmyfki).
The FCC should rethink the spectrum parts of the National Broadband Plan in light of the experience of the last two years, said Blair Levin, manager of the plan, and FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell last week in separate interviews. Friday marked the two-year anniversary of the formal release of the plan, at the FCC’s March 2010 meeting.