The FCC shouldn’t get bogged down in questions of how to classify text messaging for Universal Service Fund contributions or any other piecemeal approach to universal service contribution reform, USTelecom warned the commission in comments posted to docket 06-122 and released Tuesday. “Universal service contribution issues need to be addressed in a comprehensive proceeding, not through ad hoc proceedings, such as those for which the Commission requests comment here,” USTelecom executives David Cohen and Jonathan Banks wrote in their comments.

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The House Commerce Committee is content to let the FCC take a first run at the Universal Service Fund overhaul, a committee spokeswoman told us Friday. “We are waiting to see what the FCC decides to do before we make a decision on whether legislation is necessary,” the spokeswoman said. Congress’ tacit approval of the FCC’s reform schedule had been expected (CD Feb 8 p1) but Friday’s statement comes amidst a blitz by rural telcos trying to get the Hill to intervene in the USF proceedings (CD May 25 p8). On the Senate side, Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. has said D-block legislation is his “highest priority” (CD Feb 17 p4).

Tribal carrier Gila River Telecom endorsed consultant Alexicon’s proposal to have broadband equipment categories included in high-cost loop support algorithms and to include middle-mile cost as a transmission cost (CD May 12 p11). The carrier said this in ex parte notices posted to the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime dockets. Gila River said about half of the residents on the reservation are unemployed and barely half have high school educations. “Approximately 84 percent of GRTI’s local telephone subscribers currently qualify for the Lifeline and Link Up programs, including 91 percent of GRTI’s elderly subscribers,” the group said. “Mobile wireless voice coverage is spotty in places through the Gila River Indian Community. In addition, 4G service is not available.” The telecom company said it’s delivering Internet service at a minimum speed of 1.5 Mbps for $52.90 per month. “The high cost of this service is due largely to GRTI’s high middle mile costs,” Gila River said. “The broadband adoption rate in the Gila River Indian Community is approximately 22 percent, which is higher than most other Tribal lands but significantly lower than the national average.”

Municipal broadband opponents criticized government-subsidized overbuild projects and other community networks, while supporters claimed municipalities are simply doing the job that the private sector couldn’t and/or doesn’t want to do during a panel at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation Wednesday. But panelists agreed that in many cases the wholesale model for community networks appears to be inefficient.

Worldcall Interconnect asked the full FCC to review the Wireline Bureau’s denial of the company’s petition to become an eligible telecommunications carrier in New York. “The action taken by the Bureau on delegated authority must be reversed and the Bureau should be required to reinstitute and promptly complete review of the Petition,” Worldcall said of the April 27 decision. Worldcall’s effort to become an ETC “presents unique opportunities that will provide the best possible solution for the service area … because of [Worldcall’s] 700 MHz LTE technology and its acquisition of the 700 B-Block license,” the company said in a petition posted to docket 09-197. “The Bureau’s Order is purely and simply an abject abandonment of the policies and purposes of the entire [Universal Service Fund] program,” Worldcall said. “It perpetuates all the bad aspects of the ‘Identical Support Rule’ identified by the Commission on multiple occasions, and prohibits recourse to the very ‘exception’ mechanism the Commission put in place to address these problems pending ultimate reform of the universal service system.”

Europe made progress on its digital agenda over the last year, but results in some areas are still “disappointing,” the European Commission said Tuesday. The first digital agenda scorecard, which measured how well countries performed in meeting 13 agreed targets from May 2010-May 2011, showed that 65 percent of the population now uses the Internet yet rollout of superfast broadband lags, the EC said. Of the 13 targets, it said regular Internet use, online shopping and e-government services are all on the rise. There’s still “considerable room for development” of on-demand services and online music subscriptions, which now have significant markets only in the largest European countries, it said. There was mixed progress in broadband availability and take-up, with very high-speed broadband concentrated in a few, mostly urban, areas, it said. Adoption of fixed broadband is increasing, but the growth rate in 2010 was the lowest since 2002, the EC said. It said the slowdown is troubling because nearly 40 percent of homes still have no broadband connection. Coverage of 3G mobile networks reached 90 percent in 2010. Europe’s goal is for universal coverage at 30 Mbps, already available in nearly 30 percent of households, the EC said. Only 5 percent of all fixed lines deliver speeds of 30 Mbps and above, it said. Cross-border e-commerce and use of the Internet by small and mid-sized enterprises remains sluggish, it said. Roaming prices are down, but are still more than three times as expensive as domestic calls, it said. Another weak area is public spending on research and development, the EC said. The 10 million homes not served by broadband must be reached by a combination of technologies, Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said at a high-level broadband conference in Brussels. She said she favors a mix of infrastructure -- wired networks as well as terrestrial or satellite wireless -- because while wireless technology doesn’t perform as well as advanced wired networks, it’s “good and getting better.” Satellites already contribute to the goal of broadband for all, but Europe’s clear mandate on basic broadband should spur the sector to continue long-term investment, she said. Another reason for a mix of technologies is that it promotes competition among platforms, she said. “We don’t want to pick winners,” Kroes said. She said she wants to “send a clear signal” to the market and public investors that “we cannot afford to rule out viable solutions” in the race to deliver broadband for all by 2013. The scorecard confirms the decline in revenue and investment by telecom operators for the second year in a row, despite the boom in data traffic and consumer broadband take-up, said the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association. The disconnect between traffic increases and revenue growth calls for a “broader reflection on the economy of the sector and its impact on the future of the Internet,” said ETNO Executive Board Chairman Luigi Gambardella. ETNO urged the EC to allow new business models to emerge from the market, such as differentiated offers and commercial agreements on traffic delivery. It also wants the EC to encourage national regulators to use a more targeted approach to next-generation access networks, and to speed consumer adoption of fast and ultra-fast networks by updating copyright and licensing laws to enable more legitimate online offers. Alternative operators said they're worried about Europe falling behind on broadband speeds. The main problem is that “most of Europe’s historic telcos are continuing to sweat old copper networks” while other regions in the world have moved to high-speed fiber, said European Competitive Telecommunications Association Director Ilsa Godlovitch. The EC must ensure there’s a link, as with other utility industries, between investments companies make to upgrade their infrastructure and what they're allowed to charge for their networks, she said. In most countries, incumbents are paid for renewing their networks regardless of whether they invest in new ones, she said. Satellite operators applauded Kroes for recognizing what they called their sector’s crucial role in delivering 100 percent broadband coverage. Despite a clear political objective, rising user needs and the availability of funding, Europe’s digital divide remains, said European Satellite Operators’ Association Secretary General Aarti Holla. She said ESOA wants local authorities to “move away from a one size fits all approach,” think pragmatically and be creative in finding solutions for unconnected areas.

The FCC Wireline Bureau is “hard at work” on drafting an order reforming the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regimes, an FCC spokesman told us Tuesday. Wireline staffers are hoping to have a draft to Zac Katz, Chairman Julius Genachowski’s adviser, by early July, an FCC official and a telco lobbyist told us. Some telco lobbyists raised concerns that the FCC didn’t have a plan of its own after Genachowski went to Omaha and challenged “stakeholders” to help him solve the universal service/intercarrier comp “Rubik’s cube” (CD May 20 p1). The commission spokesman rebuffed those suggestions: “FCC staff is hard at work drafting an order,” he said in an email Tuesday.

Europe made progress on its digital agenda over the last year, but results in some areas are still “disappointing,” the European Commission said Tuesday. The first digital agenda scorecard, which measured how well countries performed in meeting 13 agreed targets from May 2010-May 2011, showed that 65 percent of the population now uses the Internet yet rollout of superfast broadband lags, the EC said. Of the 13 targets, it said regular Internet use, online shopping and e-government services are all on the rise. There’s still “considerable room for development” of on-demand services and online music subscriptions, which now have significant markets only in the largest European countries, it said. There was mixed progress in broadband availability and take-up, with very high-speed broadband concentrated in a few, mostly urban, areas, it said. Adoption of fixed broadband is increasing, but the growth rate in 2010 was the lowest since 2002, the EC said. It said the slowdown is troubling because nearly 40 percent of homes still have no broadband connection. Coverage of 3G mobile networks reached 90 percent in 2010. Europe’s goal is for universal coverage at 30 Mbps, already available in nearly 30 percent of households, the EC said. Only 5 percent of all fixed lines deliver speeds of 30 Mbps and above, it said. Cross-border e-commerce and use of the Internet by small and mid-sized enterprises remains sluggish, it said. Roaming prices are down, but are still more than three times as expensive as domestic calls, it said. Another weak area is public spending on research and development, the EC said. The 10 million homes not served by broadband must be reached by a combination of technologies, Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said at a high-level broadband conference in Brussels. She said she favors a mix of infrastructure -- wired networks as well as terrestrial or satellite wireless -- because while wireless technology doesn’t perform as well as advanced wired networks, it’s “good and getting better.” Satellites already contribute to the goal of broadband for all, but Europe’s clear mandate on basic broadband should spur the sector to continue long-term investment, she said. Another reason for a mix of technologies is that it promotes competition among platforms, she said. “We don’t want to pick winners,” Kroes said. She said she wants to “send a clear signal” to the market and public investors that “we cannot afford to rule out viable solutions” in the race to deliver broadband for all by 2013. The scorecard confirms the decline in revenue and investment by telecom operators for the second year in a row, despite the boom in data traffic and consumer broadband take-up, said the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association. The disconnect between traffic increases and revenue growth calls for a “broader reflection on the economy of the sector and its impact on the future of the Internet,” said ETNO Executive Board Chairman Luigi Gambardella. ETNO urged the EC to allow new business models to emerge from the market, such as differentiated offers and commercial agreements on traffic delivery. It also wants the EC to encourage national regulators to use a more targeted approach to next-generation access networks, and to speed consumer adoption of fast and ultra-fast networks by updating copyright and licensing laws to enable more legitimate online offers. Alternative operators said they're worried about Europe falling behind on broadband speeds. The main problem is that “most of Europe’s historic telcos are continuing to sweat old copper networks” while other regions in the world have moved to high-speed fiber, said European Competitive Telecommunications Association Director Ilsa Godlovitch. The EC must ensure there’s a link, as with other utility industries, between investments companies make to upgrade their infrastructure and what they're allowed to charge for their networks, she said. In most countries, incumbents are paid for renewing their networks regardless of whether they invest in new ones, she said. Satellite operators applauded Kroes for recognizing what they called their sector’s crucial role in delivering 100 percent broadband coverage. Despite a clear political objective, rising user needs and the availability of funding, Europe’s digital divide remains, said European Satellite Operators’ Association Secretary General Aarti Holla. She said ESOA wants local authorities to “move away from a one size fits all approach,” think pragmatically and be creative in finding solutions for unconnected areas.

The FCC’s quiet but determined diplomacy with state regulators has helped ease Chairman Julius Genachowski’s path through key elements of the National Broadband Plan, state and federal officials told us. In early May, for instance, the Joint Board on Universal Service filed comments on Genachowski’s proposed Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation system revisions. Whatever the Joint Board’s other recommendations, it did not insist that the matter should have been referred back to the Joint Board. FCC officials took that as an implicit endorsements of their efforts, which in turn undermined criticisms from rural carriers that the FCC didn’t have jurisdiction (CD May 4 p2). “There really has been a lot of outreach from this FCC,” Vermont Public Service Board Member John Burke told us at the time. “I think it’s fair to say that the FCC here was pretty much unprecedented on how they reached out to members.”