House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., won’t back down in his push to reverse FCC net neutrality rules, he said. “We're going to pursue this big time,” Upton said Tuesday in an interview with the American Enterprise Institute. “We're going to look at every tool in the toolbox to try and stop this.” Upton and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., will start net neutrality hearings next month, Upton said. “At the end of the day, I think our side will win.” Asked about other telecom priorities, Upton said to expect hearings and bipartisan legislation on spectrum. Privacy and the Universal Service Fund are other issues that Upton intends to pursue on a bipartisan basis, he said.

The linear density of a fiber-to-the-home project is the best predictor of the project’s costs, said a study sponsored by the Nebraska Rural Independent Companies. The study, included in an FCC ex parte filing dated Friday, said the number of customers per route mile explains 87 percent of cost variation, whereas the area density -- the number of customers per square mile -- explains only 71 percent. Researchers looked at the costs for fiber projects in 227 rural areas and 209 towns in 15 states served by 63 ILECs, the study said. The RLECs that commissioned the study urged the FCC to “conduct further analysis with a larger data set.” If its findings hold up, they could help the FCC solve problems in the high-cost Universal Service Fund, the filing said. Using them, the commission could develop “a mathematically supported upper limit on ‘reasonable’ capital expenditures,” settle on a method “for limiting the pace of broadband” deployment and estimate “the nationwide ‘cost'” of building national broadband networks, the study said.

The split Congress could agree on spectrum and privacy matters, former Hill aides said Saturday on C-SPAN’s The Communicators. But it’s likely Senate Democrats and House Republicans will continue to butt heads on net neutrality, and it will take time to get new members comfortable with communications issues before Congress can move forward on a rewrite of the 1996 Telecom Act, they said.

The split Congress could agree on spectrum and privacy matters, former Hill aides said Saturday on C-SPAN’s The Communicators. But it’s likely Senate Democrats and House Republicans will continue to butt heads on net neutrality, and it will take time to get new members comfortable with communications issues before Congress can move forward on a rewrite of the 1996 Telecom Act, they said.

LAS VEGAS -- The FCC could begin auctioning broadcast spectrum within “the next year or two” if Congress approves sharing the proceeds with spectrum holders, Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a Q-and-A session late Friday after his speech at the Consumer Electronics Show (CD Jan 10 p2). He said commission staffers have begun “creating the framework” for the auctions, in case they're authorized.

The hiring of Ray Baum to the House Commerce Committee could signal heightened Capitol Hill interest in pursuing Universal Service Fund reform this year, state and industry officials said. Baum was chairman of the Oregon Public Utilities Commission and the state chairman of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service. Some wireline industry lobbyists said they believe Baum may try to revamp the bill worked out last year by Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., and former Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va.

The hiring of Ray Baum to the House Commerce Committee could signal heightened Capitol Hill interest in pursuing Universal Service Fund reform this year, state and industry officials said. Baum was chairman of the Oregon Public Utilities Commission and the state chairman of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service. Some wireline industry lobbyists said they believe Baum may try to revamp the bill worked out last year by Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., and former Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va.

The FCC should adopt the definition of healthcare provider used in the HITECH Act and expand eligibility to include for-profit healthcare providers, in its rules for a Rural Health Care Support Mechanism program, the Department of Health and Human Services said in a filing. The FCC currently applies a narrower 1996 definition of healthcare provider, rather than the definition approved by Congress in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, HHS noted. “FCC’s exclusion of private health care providers may arbitrarily limit access to the benefits [of the program] by rural Americans,” HHS said. “This would be contradictory to FCC’s overall objective to make available to all Americans, without discrimination, a rapid, efficient, nationwide communications service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges, for the purpose of promoting, among other things, safety of life.” The commission should also align performance goals of the Universal Service Fund program with HHS meaningful use incentive programs launched by the HITECH Act, HHS said. “Applicants cannot achieve meaningful use without access to a sufficient level of broadband connectivity, and eligibility for FCC’s program should not be contingent on the applicants already meeting meaningful use.” HHS proposed a series of milestones, which the commission could use for those receiving grants. These milestones would “ensure that FCC and HHS programs are consistent and that similar health care providers are working towards the same goals,” HHS said. It also called on the agency to increase the level of support provided to program participants.

Key parts of the National Broadband Plan still require action by Congress. A potential roadblock for the commission as it implements the plan remains that the commission cannot control if or how quickly Capitol Hill moves forward on its parts.

Key parts of the National Broadband Plan still require action by Congress. A potential roadblock for the commission as it implements the plan remains that the commission cannot control if or how quickly Capitol Hill moves forward on its parts.