FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is taking flak for not moving as quickly as many had expected to carry out the National Broadband Plan, released in March to much fanfare. The August commission meeting included votes on only two items, concerning wireless backhaul and hearing-aid-compatible phones. The July meeting included votes on three. Even some Democrats have started to question why the FCC isn’t moving faster on the massive broadband plan and whether Genachowski is reluctant to make tough policy calls.
Officials at Public Knowledge are urging the FCC to allow small towns and rural areas to use universal service funds to create their own broadband cooperatives and “other self-provisioning.” In an ex parte letter filed Friday, the group also urged FCC staff to use USF funds to ease interconnection for broadband services, and shift the high-cost fund from voice-only access to voice and broadband access.
About 66 percent of Iowans had broadband at home in April, said a report put together by a nonprofit state affiliate of Connected Nation with Iowa’s Utilities Board and its Broadband Deployment Governance Board. The report, the first in a series that Connect Iowa plans on the topic, is to be formally released Wednesday. The document is based on data collected for an interactive map at http://connectiowa.org/mapping/interactive_map.php.
About 66 percent of Iowans had broadband at home in April, said a report put together by a nonprofit state affiliate of Connected Nation with Iowa’s Utilities Board and its Broadband Deployment Governance Board. The report, the first in a series that Connect Iowa plans on the topic, is to be formally released Wednesday. The document is based on data collected for an interactive map at http://connectiowa.org/mapping/interactive_map.php.
The FCC wants comments on MeetingOne’s request to stay a March 3 Universal Service Administrator’s decision to make retroactive to October 2008 an order to requiring Universal Service Fund contributions for the company’s IP-only services. Comments are due Sept. 24, replies Oct. 11.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski shares concerns about “the tone and tenor” of TracFone commercials on the Lifeline program, he said in an Aug. 11 letter to Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y., released by the commission Friday. The ads “may have trivialized an important government program,” Genachowski said. “The Universal Service Administrative Company will monitor TracFone’s distribution of Lifeline funds to ensure strict compliance with the FCC’s regulations.” Higgins had complained that the TracFone ads indicate the company improperly uses Lifeline dollars to subsidize free cellphones and minutes for families not eligible for those discounts. We couldn’t reach a TracFone lawyer for comment.
State regulators from Nebraska and Kansas are defending their requests for a declaratory ruling that would allow states to require nomadic VoIP providers to contribute to state universal service funds. In a Wednesday filing, private firm lawyers representing the Nebraska Public Service Commission and the Kansas Corporation Commission said: “Consumers, competitors and universal service are all best served by a wide USF assessment base that does not contain a loophole favoring one particular class of competitors.” Some ex parte filings said opponents are urging the FCC to take a slower rulemaking process on the question, but Nebraska and Kansas regulators said they're worried about nomadic VoIP providers expanding, thus depriving the states of more funds.
State regulatory conditions for municipal broadband haven’t changed the past few years, though the National Broadband Plan and other efforts have prompted state governments to be more active regarding broadband, experts said in interviews. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., plans to reintroduce community broadband legislation when he gains Republican co-sponsorship in the Commerce Committee, a spokeswoman said.
AT&T executives met with FCC staff to discuss the Universal Service Fund, said an ex parte filing Tuesday. “While a numbers only-based system was adequate just a few years ago, changes in the marketplace and the direction of USF reform require a more inclusive methodology."
Tying Universal Service Fund support levels to cost models that don’t take satellite broadband into account “severely inflates” the support required to reach the 7 million targeted households, Hughes Network Systems said in a meeting with the FCC’s Wireline, Wireless and International bureaus. That inflation aggravates “the subsidization of inefficient terrestrial build-out,” the company said in a presentation. Hughes said satellite broadband shouldn’t be included in revised USF, since it already offers nationwide service without support. Requiring satellite broadband providers to contribute for the service would be unfair because it would be paying for competing companies’ terrestrial buildout, it said.