Lawyers and an economist for Comcast seek access to all documents a group of six large phone companies filed with the FCC on changing the Universal Service Fund to pay for broadband. The documents include those from AT&T, Frontier, CenturyLink, FairPoint, Verizon and/or Windstream, the Lawler Metzger law firm said in a Wednesday filing in docket 10-90 (http://xrl.us/bmaimb). Michael Pelcovits of Microeconomic Consulting also signed a confidentiality acknowledgment. Cable operators haven’t yet backed the plan from the six major phone carriers that was brokered by USTelecom (CD Aug 1 p1).

Americans who use the Internet are more likely to pursue active job searches and not drop out of the labor force, said a Phoenix Center study released Thursday (http://xrl.us/bmahxb). “Broadband Internet use was found to reduce the probability of becoming ‘discouraged’ by about 50 percent on average,” the study said. “Dial-up Internet use also had a large effect, reducing the probability of becoming discouraged by about one-third. Significantly, our results also demonstrated that the promotion of shared connections, such as at schools and libraries, in unserved and underserved areas may, in fact, produce substantial societal benefits.” Use of mobile broadband also keeps job searchers from becoming discouraged, though “there are meaningful shortfalls in coverage, particularly in rural markets,” the center said. “Facilitating private investment in expanded mobile broadband coverage could improve the efficiency of labor markets, particularly for persons living in lower-income households or rural markets.” To that end, the study said AT&T’s proposed buy of T-Mobile could prove beneficial since AT&T has promised to roll out LTE in 97 percent of the U.S. Rural Cellular Association President Steve Berry said the report is consistent with his group’s arguments. “Wireless is the ‘people’s choice’ and especially for minorities, low-income users and the younger generation -- mobile is the mode of access to the Internet,” Berry said. “Mobile high speed broadband must be a choice and an option in the FCC [Universal Service Fund] reform effort."

USTelecom and Sprint Nextel separately asked the FCC Wireline Bureau to clarify that carriers shouldn’t have to reimburse the Universal Service Administrative Co. when Rural Health Care (RHC) applicants don’t comply with USAC audit procedures. AT&T asked the commission to reverse a decision by USAC that the service provider must foot the bill when one of its customers violates a USAC rule. The amount of money in question in the case appealed by AT&T is small: $1,860. The industry commenters said the issue presented is much larger.

Changes to the Universal Service Fund under consideration by the FCC “could undermine telephone service including broadband service in rural areas,” former Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said in a Tuesday op-ed for MinnPost.com. “The FCC is talking about ‘reforming’ or eliminating the funds that help communications providers (both wire-line and wireless) finance the commitments they have made to connect our remote and rural areas,” said Dorgan, now an adviser to telcos at Sidley Austin. “Small rural telephone companies rely on those funds to finance the networks they have built and to build out new broadband service to rural areas. Eliminating that support would be devastating to some rural areas."

Many stimulus broadband projects are still waiting for environmental review, though construction has been under way throughout the country, Rural Utilities Service Administrator Jonathan Adelstein said Wednesday during the Broadband Talk Radio show Gigabit Nation. Meanwhile, the agency is considering more outreach efforts to minority projects for potential grant and loan opportunities, he said.

Verizon and Google disagreed sharply on whether the FCC should give tw telecom the declaratory ruling it asked for. Tw seeks a ruling that VoIP is a telecom service under Title II, giving the company the right “to establish direct IP-to-IP interconnections.” Google, as well as NCTA and a number of cable operators, supported the company’s arguments. Verizon and USTelecom said any such ruling would be premature.

TracFone Wireless wants the FCC to focus on the human side of the Lifeline program and what it means to average Americans. TracFone submitted a DVD of people talking about the importance of the phones they got through the Universal Service Fund program. “It is important that the Commission remain focused on how the Lifeline program impacts the lives of those low income households who are qualified for and who receive Lifeline-supported services,” TracFone said in a filing (http://xrl.us/bk9htk). “These customers are all low-income, some are unemployed, some are elderly, some are disabled, some are members of economically-disadvantaged minority groups. All customers surveyed describe their reliance on their SafeLink Wireless telecommunications service obtained through their participation in the Lifeline program."

Supporters of the Universal Service Fund overhaul agreement brokered by USTelecom asked the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Commerce committees and their communications subcommittees for support. A Thursday letter was from USTelecom, AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, FairPoint, Frontier, Windstream, OPASTCO, the NTCA and the Western Telecommunications Alliance. “This universal service fund (USF) and intercarrier compensation reform framework represents the country’s best chance to stabilize, modernize, and expand rural networks for years to come,” the coalition said. “With our carefully balanced compromise, we believe the industry can work through a major transition process without damaging vital communication infrastructure or disrupting customer services.” The FCC has said it hopes to complete reform this fall, the coalition noted. “After years of frustration and dead-ends, we are on the precipice of reform and now have a rare opportunity to push for significant change in these vital programs. Please join us by encouraging the FCC to make this reform a reality.” In a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe urged the FCC “to take advantage of this historic opportunity” presented by the broad industry agreement on universal service and intercarrier comp revisions. “We may never see a better chance than this, and it’s time to end the waiting for those without broadband,” Beebe, a Democrat, wrote in a letter dated and released Thursday.

The FCC appears likely to take recommendations from the three Universal Service Fund reform plans that were put out for public comment earlier this month but “none of these three plans were fair to, much less favorable to, terrestrial fixed wireless Internet service providers,” Lariat executive Laurence “Brett” Glass said in an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bk7ppq). Lariat is a wireless Internet service provider in Albany County, Wyo. But “WISPs have proven to be the most cost-effective way of reaching unserved residents,” Glass said. In other meetings, executives from Bernard Telephone, Interstate Telecom Consulting and NTCA met with Wireline Bureau staff and said pending universal service and intercarrier compensation regime reforms “will make it difficult, if not impossible, to continue to invest in the needs of its membership” (http://xrl.us/bk7ppq). Last week, NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield had a phone call with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowksi and plugged “the benefits of the joint reform rural plan for” reform, according to an ex parte notice (http://xrl.us/bk7ppq). Bloomfield also “discussed the importance of keeping the parameters of the reform framework of the proposed ‘America’s Broadband Connectivity Plan’ in place and explained that any changes will make it difficult to achieve industry consensus,” the notice said.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission extended its state Universal Service Fund requirements to interconnected VoIP providers, a commission order said. The rules are limited to providers that were paying into the funds prior to Oct. 27, the date of Maine VoIP legislation. The rules don’t apply to other interconnected VoIP providers unless and until the legislature requires such application in the future, the order said. LD-1311 specifies that providers of VoIP don’t constitute telephone utilities.