SAN FRANCISCO -- Local regulators responded sharply to PCIA complaints of delays and unreasonable demands on requests for wireless-antenna siting (CD July 20 p3), and one took the opportunity to vent at an FCC official, too. The moderator of a NATOA conference panel Thursday, Jodie Miller, said many of the localities on a long list included by PCIA in a comment in a commission inquiry on speeding up broadband deployment don’t have unlimited moratoria on installations and don’t understand why they were named as unduly balky. Replies are due Sept. 30 in WC Docket 11-59. Miller, from the North Dakota County, Minn., Cable Communications Commission, is the chair of NATOA’s policy and legal committee.

Cable advocates have taken their fight against the right-of-first-refusal provisions in America’s Broadband Connectivity plan to Capitol Hill, hoping to keep Congress from supporting the incumbent-backed plan, NCTA Executive Vice President James Assey told us Wednesday. President Michael Powell and Comcast/NBC Universal Washington President Kyle McSlarrow have been pressing their cases on the Hill. The goal is to keep legislators from signing incumbent-circulated letters to the FCC supporting the ABC plan, he said.

The FCC and small and mid-sized wireless carriers are headed to court in November in a case that examines whether the agency acted improperly in a December order that redirected high-cost Universal Service Fund money to a fund that will pay for broadband buildout (CD Jan 4 p2). The carriers challenging the order complain that while the reserved funds may ultimately be used for broadband, the commission does not place them under one of the four existing USF programs. Oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is scheduled for Nov. 15 in Rural Cellular Association v. FCC.

The FCC must ensure sufficient funding for broadband adoption programs as it revamps the Universal Service Fund, Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., said in a letter circulating on Capitol Hill Tuesday. “A truly complete USF program would include adequate funding to bring critical programs, like broadband adoption initiatives modeled after the Lifeline and Link Up, into the broadband era,” Matsui said. Matsui plans to send the letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski as early as Friday, a Matsui spokeswoman said. “In today’s economy, the internet has become a necessity, not a luxury,” Matsui wrote. “We must do more to promote subscribership through adoption programs.” Many don’t subscribe because they lack the “necessary equipment, training or education opportunities to take advantage of the benefits of Internet use,” Matsui said. Others can’t afford “even basic broadband service,” she said.

Alaska’s biggest cable operator made its case for Universal Service Fund reform targeted at that state (CD April 22 p9). GCI reported telling aides to all FCC members other than Chairman Julius Genachowski of the Alaska plan in a filing Monday in docket 10-90 (http://xrl.us/bmdxsr). The plan would for now keep some current support for eligible telecom carriers and high-cost programs.

The adoption of the America’s Broadband Connectivity Plan (ABC Plan) for Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation revamp would drive small rural carriers out of business, several state commissioners said during a FCBA briefing Monday. Meanwhile, all three revamp proposals ignore the role of wireless, industry officials said.

The FCC should “maintain the key elements of the America’s Broadband Connectivity and Joint Rural Association proposals” to revamp the Universal Service Fund as the commission considers “other proposals to revise the plan,” Reps. Lee Terry, R-Neb., and Mike Ross, D-Ark., said in a letter circulating on Capitol Hill this week. The letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski hadn’t been sent and is dated Sept. 23. The FCC “must ask swiftly yet carefully to enact reforms that allow all Americans -- particularly those in hard-to-serve rural communities -- access to the burgeoning services and opportunities that are being created via innovations in broadband technology,” the lawmaker said. And the FCC “should pursue a USF reform framework that is fiscally responsible, enforceable, and sustainable, providing opportunities for a wide range of robust broadband technologies to compete.” The ABC and Joint Rural Association plans taken together “embody the core principles” of the National Broadband Plan, Terry and Ross said. “While many details remain to be fleshed out by the FCC, this framework clearly creates a path forward for comprehensive USF and intercarrier compensation reform.”

The New America Foundation joined other public interest groups in opposition to universal service reform proposals that would give incumbents the right of first refusal for Universal Service Fund cash, according to an ex parte notice released Monday in docket 10-90. The foundation also worried about carrier-of-last-resort obligations, the group said, describing last week’s meeting with Angela Kronenberg, aide to FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. The foundation did support nonprofit groups’ request for interconnection requirements and for a miniature version of the Broadband Opportunities Technology Program, according to its ex parte notice.

Two of the three judges who heard Vermont Public Service Board v. FCC cited the FCC’s plan to revamp the overall Universal Service Fund as they considered Vermont and Maine’s request to fix the FCC’s non-rural high-cost system. In a U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit hearing, judges questioned the use of outdated data by the FCC and the states’ failure to seek a waiver to request supplemental high-cost support. The case stems from a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals remand in the so-called Qwest II case, in which the commission said rural and urban rates “are reasonably comparable.” State regulators have challenged, claiming the FCC “failed to compare rural rates in each state to a national average urban rate.”

FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Rick Kaplan stressed the importance of spectrum sharing in making more frequencies available for wireless broadband, at an FCBA wireless lunch Thursday. Kaplan said questions need to be answered about the 1755 MHz band, a key target of carriers. Kaplan, a former aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski, moved to the bureau in late June.