Some changes proposed as part of Universal Service Fund reform, such as single-winner reverse auctions, would create much more harm than good, especially for smaller carriers, representatives of SouthernLINC Wireless said in meetings last week with FCC officials. “As the industry continues to consolidate, the presence of regional mobile service providers who focus solely on their local service areas -- as opposed to national wireless service providers whose primary focus traditionally has not been the rural, insular and high cost areas of our country -- provides the types of alternatives which are necessary to ensure that consumers and businesses enjoy the benefits of competition,” SouthernLINC said in an ex parte filing. The filing said that USF reform “should not lead to the inadvertent elimination of these alternatives in the name of achieving slightly faster broadband speeds by subsidizing only a single service provider.” If the FCC gets the rules wrong, the result could be the “remonopolization of communications services” in rural America, the carrier said.

Top congressional staffers are lending a hand in the ongoing talks on an industry-endorsed Universal Service Fund reform proposal, telco and Capitol Hill officials said in interviews. Ray Baum, senior policy adviser on the House Communications Subcommittee and longtime friend of Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore.; Nick Degani, legal counsel to the subcommittee; and Brad Schweer, legislative director to Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb.; have all taken an active part in the industry talks in recent weeks, telco officials and Baum said. Since the November elections, Congress had steered clear of USF, focusing on net neutrality, spectrum, FCC reform and AT&T’s plan to buy T-Mobile. Walden earlier this month said he was “encouraged” by the FCC’s USF efforts, and urged industry to come up with a reform package soon (CD June 8 p5).

Representatives of wireless companies that serve as eligible telecommunications carriers in Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands discussed “the unique challenges of serving insular areas” in a series of meetings this week at the FCC. Challenges include “depressed economic conditions, remote location, severe weather conditions, and challenging geography, all of which contribute to high telecommunications costs and low telephone penetration rates,” the companies said in an ex parte filing. They urged the FCC to “give special consideration for insular areas -- and to ensure that sufficient support is available to address the challenges of serving those areas -- as it considers reforms to the Universal Service Fund and develops mechanisms implementing its broadband deployment objectives.” Companies represented at the meetings were DoCoMo Pacific, NTT DoCoMo, PR Wireless and Choice Communications. They met with Wireline Bureau staff and aides to Commissioners Michael Copps, Robert McDowell and Mignon Clyburn.

The Rural Cellular Association pushed for interoperability in the 700 MHz band at a Capitol Hill briefing Wednesday. That’s key to a successful public safety network, said RCA CEO Steve Berry. RCA is working closely with Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Mark Begich, D-Alaska, on their interoperability amendment to Senate spectrum legislation by Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. RCA was “heartened” when Rockefeller committed to helping the group “find solutions” on the issue, Berry said. It’s unclear what form that might take, he said: “It may or may not be an amendment on the floor.” While RCA still supports auctioning the D-block, it’s now pushing more on the interoperability issue, Berry said. He said Rockefeller “has made his decision” to reallocate the D-block, while the House is leaning the other way. The choice is “political” and RCA isn’t “going to be able to make that decision,” Berry said. RCA had 50 members lobbying on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Berry said, and noted that in meetings they're raising concerns about AT&T buying T-Mobile, and they're supporting interoperability, the FCC’s data roaming order and technology-neutral Universal Service Fund revisions.

The House Commerce Committee has asked the FCC for “more targeted data” on the Universal Service Fund. The request came in a letter to Chairman Julius Genachowski, signed by Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and telecom subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. Wednesday’s letter continues a years’ long tradition by the committee, seeking data on USF. It asks for state-by-state and company-by-company lists of who got what and for how much money.

The FCC said it gave an indefinite Universal Service Fund extension to 235 healthcare providers that aren’t technically “rural” but “play a key role in delivering health care services to surrounding regions” that are rural. The commission issued a rulemaking notice with the order, seeking comment on whether the extension should be made permanent. “The record demonstrates that grandfathered facilities, while not located themselves in a ‘rural area’ under current Commission definitions, play a key role in providing health care services to ‘fundamentally rural’ areas,” the agency said late Tuesday. “In some instances, the grandfathered health care provider is a primary or secondary hub in a network that serves health care providers and patients located in areas that do qualify as ‘rural’ under our current definition. The record also provides numerous examples of the critical services that the petitioners and other affected health care providers offer their patients.” The providers have been paid less than $1.4 million between 1998 and 2009, the commission said. That’s an average of a little less than $6,000 per provider annually. “Without continued funding, these facilities will likely be unable to continue providing telehealth services to rural areas,” the commission said, adding that none of the commenters opposed an interim extension. Only one commenter argued against making the extension permanent. The rest “argue that funding for grandfathered providers promotes telemedicine and other uses of broadband for rural health care purposes, and describe how rural communities would lose access,” the commission said. The order takes immediate effect. Comments on the permanency notice are due 30 days after it’s published in the Federal Register, replies 15 days later.

The U.S. has made “significant progress” on getting fast Internet service to rural areas, but “the broadband deployment and adoption gaps” remain “significant,” the FCC said in an update on rural broadband released Wednesday. Nearly 19 million rural Americans lack access to fixed broadband of at least 3 Mbps downstream and 768 kbps up, the commission said in its update to the 2009 rural broadband report. That population accounts for nearly three-quarters of the nation’s broadband “gap,” the report said. “Close to three out of ten rural Americans -- 28.2 percent -- lack access to fixed broadband at 3 Mbps/768 kbps or faster, a percentage that is more than nine times as large as the 3.0 percent that lack access in non-rural areas."

The U.S. has made “significant progress” on getting fast Internet service to rural areas, but “the broadband deployment and adoption gaps” remain “significant,” the FCC said in an update on rural broadband released Wednesday. Nearly 19 million rural Americans lack access to fixed broadband of at least 3 Mbps downstream and 768 kbps up, the commission said in its update to the 2009 rural broadband report. That population accounts for nearly three-quarters of the nation’s broadband “gap,” the report said. “Close to three out of ten rural Americans -- 28.2 percent -- lack access to fixed broadband at 3 Mbps/768 kbps or faster, a percentage that is more than nine times as large as the 3.0 percent that lack access in non-rural areas."

The FCC issued an interim order that it says will help prevent Lifeline subscribers from receiving multiple subsidies. The order has been ready since last month but was stalled by Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael Copps, who fought over the notice provisions (CD June 14 p2). As expected, the order automatically cancels extra Lifeline subscriptions and divides customers up amongst eligible telecommunications carriers (ETC) in the various states. The new allotment system will take immediate effect in Tennessee and Florida, the two states with the most pronounced Lifeline problems. As staff reviews the process, more states will be subject to the de-enrollment/allotment rules over the next several months, an FCC official said.

NTIA, set to publish the second round of broadband data in August, understands there’s been interest in collecting broadband pricing data, said Anne Neville, program director of State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program. The reality is pricing often changes frequently so there’s no easy apple-to-apple comparison, she told the Broadband Breakfast Club on Tuesday. Combined with the cost of reviewing and publishing data, she said data collecting, maintaining and validating is expensive. NTIA hasn’t received any proposal to collect pricing data, she noted. If any third party has an idea of how to “marry data with pricing,” they can do so, Neville said.