Representatives of a maker of optical fiber and a group of university IT managers agreed that there’s a role for government incentives to promote super-fast broadband. But Corning executive Stan Fendley and Telepoly President John Windhausen, who consults for the Educause group, disagreed Tuesday at the first Broadband Breakfast Club event how best the government can help. NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow, who’s critical of the broadband loans made by the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utility Service, said any direct government subsidies should go only to rural areas.

A vote is unlikely on intercarrier compensation and Universal Service Fund overhaul at the FCC’s Dec. 18 meeting, Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters Tuesday after he spoke at a Phoenix Center telecom symposium. But he left open the possibility that the FCC could act while he still is chairman at its January meeting. Martin said the FCC may act in December on rules for the AWS-3 and 700 MHz D-block auctions. He also said Comcast could face fines or other penalties for failing to respond adequately to a request by the commission for information on the policies of cable companies switching to digital (CD Nov 18 p7).

Representatives of a maker of optical fiber and a group of university IT managers agreed that there’s a role for government incentives to promote super-fast broadband. But Corning executive Stan Fendley and Telepoly President John Windhausen, who consults for the Educause group, disagreed Tuesday at the first Broadband Breakfast Club event how best the government can help. NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow, who’s critical of the broadband loans made by the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utility Service, said any direct government subsidies should go only to rural areas.

Representatives of a maker of optical fiber and a group of university IT managers agreed that there’s a role for government incentives to promote super-fast broadband. But Corning executive Stan Fendley and Telepoly President John Windhausen, who consults for the Educause group, disagreed Tuesday at the first Broadband Breakfast Club event how best the government can help. NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow, who’s critical of the broadband loans made by the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utility Service, said any direct government subsidies should go only to rural areas.

CompTel asked Congress to again urge the FCC to delay Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation overhauls. The FCC has already delayed action on the item once. But instead of voting on an overhaul at this month’s meeting, the FCC sought comment on three draft proposals. Four commissioners have said they want to vote on a revamp at the Dec. 18 meeting, but a tight comment deadline means the agency will have less than three weeks to circulate a draft order (CD Nov 13 p1). “While our initial request was for transparency, which we have now been given, I find myself making another plea for you to reach out to the Commission again and ask that they allow the time needed for thorough and carefully scrutinized comments to be submitted and reviewed,” CompTel President Matt Salmon wrote 106 members of Congress. With comments due Nov. 26 and replies Dec. 3, and Thanksgiving in between, the FCC will have only 17 days to “wade through what is expected to be hundreds of thousands of pages,” Salmon said. CompTel doesn’t “want to appear ungrateful, nor is it our intention to try to hold up the process, but rather, we ask that the commission not be so quick to act on two major reforms when there is no real urgency attached to either.”

NEW ORLEANS -- State phone regulators see December as a key month, said panelists at the annual NARUC meeting here. Nebraska Public Service Commission member Sue Vanicek said her state’s suit over its power to assess Vonage and other intrastate VoIP providers a 6.95 percent fee to support the state universal service fund will affect USF efforts by other states, as will an FCC ruling expected next month on changing the federal system for ensuring universal phone service and agency controls on intercarrier compensation.

NEW ORLEANS -- Qwest CEO Ed Mueller said the economic crisis shows that regulation has its place. Lauding state regulators for “successfully opening the industry to competition,” Mueller told NARUC telecommunications committee members Monday that state commissions gave his company and other incumbent providers “the flexibility to offer new services, bundles and promotions and adjust pricing to compete effectively and better serve customers.”

NEW ORLEANS -- State phone regulators see December as a key month, said panelists at the annual NARUC meeting here. Nebraska Public Service Commission member Sue Vanicek said her state’s suit over its power to assess Vonage and other intrastate VoIP providers a 6.95 percent fee to support the state universal service fund will affect USF efforts by other states.

The FCC must improve administration of the Universal Service Fund, USF payers and recipients said last week in comments on an October FCC inquiry into how it might strengthen USF management, administration and oversight (CD Sept 15 p7). High error rates cited in a 2007 Inspector General audit worry the FCC. Meanwhile, Universal Service Administrative Co. and parent National Exchange Carrier Association urged the FCC to approve a divestiture of USAC from NECA.

Choosing a federal chief technology officer could go hand-in-hand with restructuring the Office of Science and Technology Policy under the new administration, suggested a recent Congressional Research Service report. The report doesn’t discuss the proposed CTO position that President- Elect Barack Obama envisions. But it does recommend that Congress keep a close eye on power given the director of the science and technology office and “increase the intensity” of its oversight “to reflect current Congressional priorities.”