Some small rural phone companies are asking if Google and other content providers should contribute to the Universal Service Fund. In filings and meetings this summer at the FCC, the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association has urged the FCC to open a rulemaking on the subject (CD Aug 31 p9). Content providers impose significant costs on companies’ networks, and charging them for USF would further the FCC’s broadband deployment goals, said NTCA Vice President Dan Mitchell in an interview. But a Google spokesman disputed the credibility of NTCA’s evidence. And some phone companies aren’t sure the proposal can be implemented.

Some small rural phone companies are asking if Google and other content providers should contribute to the Universal Service Fund. In filings and meetings this summer at the FCC, the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association has urged the FCC to open a rulemaking on the subject (WID Aug 31 p3). Content providers impose significant costs on companies’ networks, and charging them for USF would further the FCC’s broadband deployment goals, said NTCA Vice President Dan Mitchell in an interview. But a Google spokesman disputed the credibility of NTCA’s evidence. And some phone companies aren’t sure the proposal can be implemented.

Oversight hearings on the broadband stimulus program and the Genachowski FCC are the first order of business in the House Communications Subcommittee as Congress returns. Other matters will have a tough time getting on the agenda as lawmakers resume work on health care and climate change legislation. Few expect major telecom enactments this year, other than must-pass satellite reauthorization legislation and possibly a cybersecurity bill, according to lobbyists, trade associations and Hill sources. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said he will allow floor time on a cybersecurity measure but none for satellite. This means that to pass Congress, any other telecom provisions must have the full support of all members, an especially daunting test in the Senate. Progress is slow on Universal Service Fund legislation spearheaded by Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb. A hearing could be held this year, but draft legislation is still being worked on, Commerce aides said. Efforts in the Senate aren’t even that far along, although interest is strong among Commerce Committee leaders. But health-care and climate-change bills are expected to dominate the committee’s agenda. Hearings may be held on a national wireless framework legislation, data roaming, special access and handset exclusivity, CTIA officials said. The association is on the sidelines on most of these issues since its members have differing views, officials said. Hearings could allow Congress to express opinions as the FCC pursues its notices of inquiry on related matters. “Everyone is watching” for any potential legislation dealing with privacy and behavioral advertising, a point of interest for Boucher, President Steve Largent told reporters last week. Senate leaders want to pass a cybersecurity bill, a goal that Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has pursued intensely. His most recent draft would allow the president, working with industry, to develop a plan for responding to cybersecurity threats. This tones down previous provisions that would have allowed the president to shut down Internet traffic in response to a major threat. But several other committees have drafted their own bills, and they would have to be coordinated for a measure to pass Congress.

FCC policy should promote broadband networks that are sustainable and innovative and recommend more money be spent on research and development, said academics and others at an FCC workshop Thursday. Internet TV executives also said online video will be a major driver of broadband adoption, but some warned the FCC must be watchful of possibly anti- competitive network management practices.

The FCC could cite existing wireless universal service contribution mechanisms to justify requiring interconnected VOIP providers to contribute to state universal service funds based on intrastate revenue, said the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. NARUC Telecom Committee Chairman Ray Baum and General Counsel Brad Ramsay met separately on Tuesday with aides to Commissioner Robert McDowell and FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick, an ex parte said. Commercial mobile radio services are “if anything, more portable” than nomadic VOIP services, and CMRS companies contribute to both federal and state USF, noted NARUC. “This suggests the FCC could cite to existing wireline and CMRS contribution mechanisms to clarify/interpret the existing regulations and specify State mechanisms that, are based on billing addresses, like wireline carriers, that assess no more than the 35.1 percent complement to the federal safe harbor amount -- necessarily do not double recover costs and also therefore necessarily ‘do not burden the federal program.'”

The FCC could cite existing wireless universal service contribution mechanisms to justify requiring interconnected VoIP providers to contribute to state universal service funds based on intrastate revenue (CD Aug 26 p8), said the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. NARUC Telecom Committee Chairman Ray Baum and General Counsel Brad Ramsay met separately on Tuesday with aides to Commissioner Robert McDowell and FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick, an ex parte said. Commercial mobile radio services are “if anything, more portable” than nomadic VoIP services, and CMRS companies contribute to both federal and state USF, noted NARUC. “This suggests the FCC could cite to existing wireline and CMRS contribution mechanisms to clarify/interpret the existing regulations and specify State mechanisms that, are based on billing addresses, like wireline carriers, that assess no more than the 35.1 percent complement to the federal safe harbor amount -- necessarily do not double recover costs and also therefore necessarily ‘do not burden the federal program.'”

FCC policy should promote broadband networks that are sustainable and innovative and recommend more money be spent on research and development, said academics and others at an FCC workshop Thursday. Internet TV executives also said online video will be a major driver of broadband adoption, but some warned the FCC must be watchful of possibly anti- competitive network management practices.

The FCC should tentatively conclude that carriers should receive Universal Service Fund local switching support (LSS) based on their actual number of lines, if the commission adopts a notice of proposed rulemaking, said the Coalition for Equity in Switching Support. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated an item last month that would open a new proceeding to look into the matter (CD Aug 25 p3). In a phone call on Monday with an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, the coalition also urged the FCC to tentatively conclude that revised LSS regulations apply to “any annual period that has not closed prior to the effective date of the revised rules.” The Universal Service Administrative Co. doesn’t close its books on a calendar year until the end of the next year, so the FCC should adopt the NPRM quickly, with an expedited comment cycle, so the revisions can be implemented by Dec. 1, the coalition said.

The FCC banned Douglas Benit of Birmingham, Mich., from the Universal Service Fund E-Rate program for three years. Benit pleaded guilty in court to mail fraud in connection with the program and was sentenced to 46 months in prison, the commission said.

Cooperation among federal, state and private bodies is pivotal to the success of the national broadband plan, government officials said Tuesday at an FCC workshop. “If we win, it will be because we figure out that balance,” said Jane Patterson, executive director of the e-NC Authority in North Carolina. Eric Garr, the general manager of the FCC’s broadband plan, agreed. “This is a team sport,” he said. “It certainly requires federal action. It requires great partnerships with industry. It requires very dedicated officials from state and local government to make all this work.”