The incoming Commerce Committee chairmen asked FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to take up only DTV items at the commission’s Dec. 18 meeting. Commissioner Michael Copps quickly expressed agreement, but it was unclear how Martin will respond. The request, in a letter sent Friday, may have cost Martin support from Democrat commissioners on contentious matters not involving DTV, industry sources said. Late Thursday, the FCC released its Dec. 18 agenda listing all of the items that Martin circulated late last month.

Incorrect payments continue in the universal service schools and libraries E-rate program and low income fund, the FCC’s inspector general said Friday. These are payments that shouldn’t be made or are for the wrong amount. The E-rate program had a rate of payment errors of 13.9 percent in audits just completed, up from 12.9 percent in 2007, the IG said. The incorrect payments totaled $232.7 million, compared to $210 million in 2007. The problem puts the program “at risk,” according to Office of Management and Budget guidelines that set 2.5 percent as the highest acceptable rate.

CompTel criticized several countries as failing to comply with U.S. telecom trade agreements or WTO obligations. In filings with the U.S. Trade Representative, the group urged further change in these countries to ensure fair and nondiscriminatory market conditions. Topping the list this year of countries where CompTel says competitors face discriminatory market practices are Argentina, China, Columbian, Germany, India, Israel, Malaysia, South Africa, Sweden and Venezuela. The group complained about market barriers its member companies face internationally, including discriminatory applications of Universal Service Fund obligations, excessive capitalization requirements, burdensome licensing fees and criteria, limited access to public rights-of-way and wholesale facilities, and biased regulators.

The incoming Commerce Committee chairmen asked FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to take up only DTV items at the commission’s Dec. 18 meeting. Commissioner Michael Copps quickly expressed agreement, but it was unclear how Martin will respond.

The FCC posted on its Web site how much universal service high-cost fund support competitive eligible telecom carriers will get while the agency’s interim USF cap applies. The support amounts reflect USF money ETCs received in March. “Competitive ETCs should confirm their March 2008 high-cost support amount information with [the Universal Service Administrative Co.] and file any corrections” by Dec. 31, the FCC said. USAC won’t accept changes after that date, unless the CETC is granted a waiver by the FCC, the commission said.

Special access rate reform will likely be “a first-year priority” for the next FCC, said telecom lawyer Andrew Lipman at a UBS media and telecom conference Monday. A recent GAO report said special access rates were “exploding,” and Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein “feel very strongly” about lowering rates, Lipman said. “This is a big issue not only for the Democrats but for the big business users and for the large competitors.” The Universal Service Fund and intercarrier competition will probably also get attention, but not until the second half of next year, Lipman said. The FCC “might take up a few bite-size issues like phantom traffic and traffic pumping,” he said. The FCC will look at tightening fiscal control over USF, and better targeting USF support to broadband and low-income urban areas, he said.

The FCC extended by 90 days its deadline to review a Virgin Mobile forbearance petition. The company wants the FCC to refrain from applying a requirement that an “eligible telecommunications carrier” must use its own facilities to offer service. Virgin Mobile, a reseller, wants Universal Service Fund money to provide Lifeline and Link Up services. The FCC must now rule on the petition by March 7, or the petition will be deemed granted.

The FCC wants comment on a Virgin Island Telephone Corp. petition seeking an emergency waiver of accounting rules that could reduce the company’s high-cost loop support under the Universal Service Fund. The carrier wants relief due to recent network infrastructure damage in the Virgin Islands inflicted by Hurricane Omar (CD Nov 21 p9). Comments are due Jan. 7, replies Jan. 22.

Telecom companies should not get tax breaks to build out broadband networks, consumer groups said Thursday. While more broadband is a priority, “we are adamantly opposed to just doling out taxpayers’ money to telecom companies, given their record of hitting consumers with inflated prices and slower Internet speeds compared to other industrialized countries,” said Consumers Union Vice President Gene Kimmelman. Money should go to state and local governments to provide broadband service to underserved areas, Kimmelman said. Expanding financial support for municipal-sponsored Internet services would be a better help to consumers, he said. “Our analysis shows that low income consumers account for three-quarters of all households that do not have broadband,” said Mark Cooper, CFA director of research. “We need to use universal service funds to support broadband to increase the adoption among these households.” Telecom firms received “billions of dollars in tax subsidies in the 1990s on the promise that they would fully upgrade their networks for Internet services,” Cooper said. “But they failed to deliver.”

FCC officials voiced frustration over new delays in the commission’s overhauls of the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation. At PLI’s annual telecom conference Thursday, Wireline Bureau Chief Dana Shaffer, Commissioner Robert McDowell and Scott Deutchman, an aide to Commissioner Michael Copps, wouldn’t predict when the FCC would finally act. McDowell and Deutchman said they were disappointed no vote would happen at the Dec. 18 FCC meeting. Meanwhile, Hill officials said some in Congress are looking to move on a USF revamp, but the prospects are unclear.