F.J. Pollack, TracFone Wireless’ CEO, called for at least a significant reduction of the Universal Service Fund’s high-cost program, the one part of the fund that has had major increases in recent years. Pollack spoke Monday at a Technology Policy Institute lunch on Capitol Hill.

Kansas and Nebraska regulators asked the FCC to allow states to charge VoIP providers universal service fund fees on intrastate traffic. Their petition, filed Thursday, is the latest development in an issue that came to a head when Nebraska tried to charge VoIP provider Vonage fees to help support the state’s Universal Service Fund (WID June 8 p6). Kansas and Nebraska asked the FCC to “declare that state USF assessment is not preempted and has not been preempted, so long as the state does not assess interstate revenue.” The petition follows suggestions by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. The court recently turned aside the Nebraska commission’s appeal of a lower court decision banning the assessments, in a lawsuit brought by Vonage. But the 8th Circuit also said that if asked the FCC could issue a declaratory ruling codifying principles the commission expressed in an amicus brief supporting Nebraska’s appeal. The state commissions filed their petition “in the belief that the FCC is the expert agency that should make a determination as to the validity of states assessing nomadic VoIP providers to support their universal service funds,” said an attorney for the commissions.

Kansas and Nebraska regulators asked the FCC to allow states to charge VoIP providers universal service fund fees on intrastate traffic. Their petition, filed Thursday, is the latest development in an issue that came to a head when Nebraska tried to charge VoIP provider Vonage fees to help support the state’s Universal Service Fund (CD June 8 p7). The Kansas and Nebraska utility commissions asked the FCC to “declare that state USF assessment is not preempted and has not been preempted, so long as the state does not assess interstate revenue.”

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s broadband bill (S-1447) was introduced and referred to the Senate Finance Committee (CD July 14 p1). The bill would use $1 billion of the $7.2 billion in broadband stimulus funds for investment tax credits and bonds to encourage more private sector spending.

TracFone asked the FCC to drop a condition imposed in a 2008 order making the wireless company an eligible telecommunications carrier under the Universal Service Fund Lifeline program. The condition requires TracFone to certify in states where it offers Lifeline service that it’s carrying out all its 911 and E-911 duties. In a petition Thursday, TracFone said the FCC imposed the condition based on statements by the Keystone chapter of the National Emergency Numbers Association. But the group’s secretary, Timothy Baldwin, later admitted making misrepresentations to the FCC, TracFone said. “The Commission’s stated reason for that condition ceases to exist,” it said. The condition has burdened TracFone and the FCC, the company said. “To date, two petitions to reject TracFone state law compliance certifications have been filed with the Commission.” Both are based on “unsupported allegations and unproven opinions,” and neither would have been allowed without the state compliance condition, it said.

Jeff Pulver aims to “reboot telecom” by lobbying in Washington for widespread adoption of HD voice technology, the VoIP pioneer and Vonage co-founder said Tuesday. Pulver plans in September to formally introduce his effort, which seeks to make HD voice the “bare-bone minimum quality” voice standard for broadband, wireless and traditional wireline by 2015, he said.

An AT&T emergency petition on Universal Service Fund contributions is expected to flare up old arguments before the new FCC, telecom industry officials said Monday. Late Friday, the company urged “immediate commission action” to adopt the plan by AT&T and Verizon for a pure numbers-based mechanism, in light of the all-time high 12.9 percent contribution factor that kicked in earlier this month. But AT&T’s foes don’t appear to have budged on the subject.

Public radio stations may have escaped the burden of Web streaming royalties when SoundExchange and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting reached agreement in January, but they're discovering that the task of reporting which songs they've played is almost as troublesome. Some are looking at their bottom lines and wondering whether streaming is their best use of time and money. Stations big and small are grappling with the reporting requirements as the first deadline looms this month. But one outlet thinks it has solved the technical issues and hopes to make the software available to other members of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters soon.

Qwest rejoined USTelecom, nearly eight years after falling out with the association over membership dues. In 2001, USTelecom suspended Qwest as a member, saying the company was four months behind in paying membership fees and the association didn’t want to create the lower-priced class of membership that Qwest had sought. The same day, Qwest said it “resigned” from USTelecom because it didn’t fully serve its needs. Qwest has rejoined USTelecom as a tier-one member, the same level it was before, a USTelecom spokesman told us Friday. The association doesn’t give out dues information, he said. A Qwest spokesman said it had left “because we believed it to be in our best interests to do so at that time,” but today it is “very excited” to be back. In statements, executives didn’t mention Qwest’s controversial departure from USTelecom. Qwest’s return marks a “formalization” of a collaboration that’s been ongoing “for a number of years,” USTelecom Chairman Ron McCue said. Qwest Senior Vice President Steve Davis said Qwest joined “to work together with their other member companies on important communications issues such as broadband deployment, Universal Service Fund reform, and intercarrier compensation reform, including traffic pumping and phantom traffic.”

The State E-Rate Coordinators Alliance told the FCC it opposes a proposal by Verizon and Verizon Wireless that any-time any-place wireless Internet access should be an eligible service for USF reimbursement (WID June 25 p6). “SECA believed, and still believes, that this proposal represented a major change in E-rate funding and purpose that was so far beyond the scope of the draft [Eligible Services List] process as to not require a reply comment,” the group said in comments filed at the FCC. “However, given supporting reply comments by Qualcomm and the San Diego Unified School District, SECA believes it is important for the Commission to recognize that there is far from universal support for greatly expanded eligibility of wireless Internet services.” The statutory intent of the E-rate program was limited to providing Internet access to schools and libraries, SECA said: “The intention was not to support Internet access, whatever the technology, to all Americans -- as would be implied by providing wireless Internet access for any and all students and library patrons.”