State regulators took aim at the industry-endorsed proposals for universal service and intercarrier compensation regime reforms, in reply comments on docket 10-90. Drawing the heaviest fire was the incumbent-backed America’s Broadband Connectivity plan. Regulators from Maine to Alaska blasted the proposals. State regulators have formed themselves into a task force hoping to convince the FCC that it’s too early to create uniform compensation rates (CD Sept 2 p7).

Comments continued to pour in Tuesday as the deadline for filings on industry-proposed universal service and intercarrier compensation regime changes expired. Incumbent telcos were mostly fighting a holding action, while a handful of rural carriers recommitted to fighting against the broader industry consensus. The six companies behind the so-called America’s Broadband Connectivity plan (CD Aug 1 p1) said in a statement that they had come up with a “detailed and workable proposal for fixing the outdated and unsustainable universal service and intercarrier compensation programs.” The companies -- AT&T, Verizon, Frontier, CenturyLink, Windstream and FairPoint -- added: “Adoption of the ABC Plan will lead to greater broadband deployment in rural America. The plan enjoys broad support on issues that have paralyzed the industry for years."

State regulators formed a NARUC task force hoping to convince the FCC to create financial incentives to states to lower their intercarrier compensation rates, Vermont regulator and NARUC telecom committee Chairman John Burke told us Thursday. The task force is chaired by New York Commissioner Maureen Harris, Burke said. Members of the task force hope to have recommendations before the October open meeting, when many expect the FCC to move to orders on universal service fund and intercarrier compensation regime reforms, Burke said. Some state regulators are hoping to keep the FCC from preempting state authority with the reforms, he said.

The FCC should “refrain from modifying” the “carefully crafted” incumbent plan for reform of the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime, the Indiana Telecommunications Association said in a letter posted to docket 01-92 Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bmbyiz). “Adjustments to the Consensus Framework that affect the interests of the parties adversely could undermine the overall effectiveness of the Consensus Framework, thereby eliminating not only industry confidence in an acceptable reform solution, but also investor confidence that enables the injection of necessary private capital to support networks where no business case can be made,” association President John Koppin said. He was referring to the so-called ABC plan.

The FCC extended by a week the deadline for replies on the a public notice on pending Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime reforms (http://xrl.us/bmbyhd). In an order late Monday, the Wireline and Wireless bureaus said Hurricane Irene had disrupted the East Coast, that the original schedule only provided for seven days to process comments, and that a substantial record had been created on the docket. Replies are now due Sept. 6. Several rural and state public utility commissioner groups had sought the delay.

Wisconsin’s local telecom operators continued to attack the University of Wisconsin’s stimulus-funded broadband project, UW-System, with a lawsuit and in an audit process. Local telcos had sought the state legislature’s action last year to block the project, but that effort failed (CD Oct 21/2010 p10).

Wisconsin’s local telecom operators continued to attack the University of Wisconsin’s stimulus-funded broadband project, UW-System, with a lawsuit and in an audit process. Local telcos had sought the state legislature’s action last year to block the project, but that effort failed.

Positions vacated at the Media Access Project this year that haven’t all been filled keep the group challenged to stay active on a wide array of communications policy issues, current and former staffers said. They agreed it’s a bad time for MAP to be missing a CEO and an associate director. It has a new public relations and fund raising staffer, as of this month, replacing one who left to work for House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. Senior Vice President Andrew Schwartzman said he hopes to fill the other vacancies in 2011.

Positions vacated at the Media Access Project this year that haven’t all been filled keep the group challenged to stay active on a wide array of communications policy issues, current and former staffers said. They agreed it’s a bad time for MAP to be missing a CEO and an associate director. It has a new public relations and fund raising staffer, as of this month, replacing one who left to work for House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. Senior Vice President Andrew Schwartzman said he hopes to fill the other vacancies in 2011.

Parties to the America’s Broadband Connectivity Universal Service Fund reform package met with the FCC to discuss ways to give the public access to the group’s modeling data, ABC said in a filing Monday in docket 01-92 (http://xrl.us/bmbvp8). “Because the model and large data files are not readily compatible with the Commission’s electronic filing system, we discussed methods of providing web-based access coupled with ex parte filings providing notice of relevant web links to the model and data files,” the groups said in an ex parte notice filed on USTelecom letterhead. “In addition, we discussed potentially providing different levels of public access to the model from generating reports based on existing solution sets via web access to providing access to model source code and the ability to input data and run unique solution sets.”