The record developed by the FCC makes clear that SMS is an information service and carriers should not have to pay into the Universal Service Fund based on SMS revenue, CTIA said in reply comments. The Wireline Bureau asked for comments on the topic, in response to an April 26 letter from the Universal Service Administrative Co. seeking guidance on the reporting of text messaging revenues for purposes of the USF.

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 the 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.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, has written to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to urge the chairman not to cap the Lifeline and Link-Up programs. The programs are the fastest-growing parts of the Universal Service Fund because of the slumping economy and the plummeting costs of cellphones, Kucinich said. “The increase in participation has, understandably, increased the cost of the programs,” Kucinich said. “This is not a bad result -- it is a good result.” It’s a “matter of great personal interest to me,” Kucinich added: “When I was growing up, my family moved 21 times and, on occasion, we lived in our car. There were times when we needed telephone service, but did not have it. I know personally how important it is to have access to a telephone, and what the results are when a family does not have it. I don’t want any family to be in that situation.” The commission is working on an interim Lifeline order designed to curb duplicate payments in a dozen states but the Democratic commissioners have pushed back, saying they're not happy with the notice provisions of the order (CD June 14 p2). Kucinich’s letter takes aim at some of the bigger questions of the proceeding, arguing against the cap as well as the proposed “one per address” rules. “There is no evidence of fraud or abuse of the programs that has been publicly released,” he said. “If there is fraud or abuse of the program, it should be dealt with appropriately, but not by an arbitrary ‘one-per-address’ restriction, when the mandate from Congress is ’to make telecommunications service available to all Americans.'"

Broadband adoption legislation by Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., won support from the Communications Workers of America. The bill would create a Universal Service Fund Lifeline program for broadband (CD June 15 p11). Enacting HR-2163 “would reduce the digital divide that currently excludes low-income persons, including many minorities, from having access to broadband services,” CWA legislative director Shane Larson said in a letter last week to Matsui. “This legislation is especially important in light of the current economic climate, in which many hard working Americans simply cannot afford to pay up to $60 a month to receive broadband service."

The New York Senate passed legislation that would prevent state regulation of VoIP services. The bill, introduced by GOP Sen. George Maziarz, might not be going anywhere because the state Assembly session ended Monday, his legislative aide told us. Maziarz is working with the Assembly to try to pass the bill in potential extended session, the aide said. S-5769 passed Monday.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sent the White House a letter asking President Barack Obama to nominate Ajit Pai for the Republican seat on the FCC vacated by Meredith Baker. Industry and government officials we spoke with Friday said Pai is likely to be nominated and should face a relatively easy time being confirmed, barring unforeseen complications. Pai’s nomination is likely to be paired with that of Jessica Rosenworcel, an aide to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.Rosenworcel is expected to be the nominee to replace Democrat Michael Copps on the commission. Copps must leave the FCC when the current session of Congress ends.

Cost and support models “can be used to establish an efficient level of costs and determine appropriate support levels in targeted high-cost rural areas,” U.S. Cellular said in a meeting with top FCC staff, the company said in an ex parte notice filed Thursday. The company was joined by executives of CostQuest, a modeling firm currently working for USTelecom in the ongoing industry-wide talks for universal service reform. U.S. Cellular also “reiterated its earlier advocacy that fixed broadband and mobile broadband should both be supported, ideally in separate funds,” the company said.

Members of USTelecom have come up with “a potential framework for reforming universal service,” USTelecom said in an ex parte notice released Thursday. Executives from Windstream, Verizon, AT&T and USTelecom said they met with Chairman Julius Genachowski’s wireline adviser Zac Katz as well as Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett, Gillett’s deputies Carol Mattey and Amy Bender and Michael Steffen of the general counsel’s office, the notice said. The officials said their proposal would provide “support for the construction and operation of broadband networks in high-cost areas” through “explicit and matched obligations within the budget of current high-cost funding programs.” They “emphasized that this approach would provide support in high-cost areas, some of which may be unserved today and some of which may be currently served due, at least in part, to legacy support mechanisms,” USTelecom’s Jonathan Banks wrote in the notice. “Such a framework could increase the efficiency of support by calculating and distributing support on a more granular geographic basis than is typical of today’s universal support programs and by distributing broadband support to only those high-cost areas where no unsupported company is providing adequate broadband service."

CHICAGO -- The FCC’s overhaul of the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation system may take a little longer than had previously been anticipated, an aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski said at the Cable Show in Chicago. Finishing an order on the subjects may take until the fall, said Sherrese Smith, who advises Genachowski on media issues. “I'm only talking about a month or two delay,” not a longer period of time, she told us during a Q-and-A Wednesday. She also said an item on program carriage will be out soon.

Some rural carriers want policymakers to address problems with the existing Universal Service Fund Lifeline program before transitioning it to broadband as proposed in a bill (HR-2163) introduced Tuesday (CD June 14 p6) by Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif. The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association supports the “idea” of helping low-income households get broadband, but government should tighten control of the fund before expanding it, said NTCA Senior Vice President Mike Romano in an interview Tuesday. Expanding the Lifeline program should not reduce money for the high-cost program to bring broadband to rural areas, Romano said. Taking away high-cost money could cancel out the effects of expanding Lifeline because, without high-cost subsidies, rural carriers might be forced to raise prices, he said. A new addition this year to Matsui’s USF bill prohibiting duplicate Lifeline awards to a single household is a “good starting point,” but the FCC ultimately will determine how it’s enforced, Romano said. The Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance also cautioned government not to forget rural areas as it tries to improve broadband adoption. “ITTA supports efforts to increase current low broadband adoption rates among many Americans living in urban and rural America,” ITTA President Genevieve Morelli said in a statement. “However, in many parts of rural America consumers lack the basic broadband infrastructure required to take advantage of broadband adoption programs.”