New York gave $5 million in grants to nine public- private partnerships to extend broadband service. Recipients were picked from 50 applicants. Three projects account for about half the awards. The Office of Technology Council for Universal Broadband grants include a $1.3 million project by New Visions Powerline Communications to develop a broadband over power lines plan to serve 12,600 households in five Onondaga County towns. Tech Valley Communications got $937,000 to extend the Albany Free Net into unserved neighborhoods to support city digital literacy efforts and online workforce training. Mount Hope Housing Corp. got $500,000 to provide free broadband access to residents of Bronx Community District 5 and to set up an operations center to provide broadband digital literacy training to community college students who in turn will teach those skills to children. The $5 million in grants provided seed money to generate $15 million in matching cash and in-kind contributions by entities running the nine projects. Next fiscal year’s budget proposes tripling grant funds to $15 million.

Telephone service penetration hit 94.9 percent in the U.S. in November, increasing 1.5 percent year-over-year, the FCC said in its triannual Telephone Subscribership report. Among states, Indiana had the lowest penetration with 88.6 percent. North Dakota was highest with 98.5 percent. Penetration for households with incomes under $20,000 was about 92.2 percent and for households with incomes over $60,000, 98.6 percent. A related annual FCC report added detail on the income breakdown. In March 2007, penetration among low-income households nationwide was 88.4 percent, compared with 94.6 percent overall. Since 1985, when the FCC created the Universal Service Fund LifeLine program to make telephone service affordable for low-income consumers, penetration has grown 8.4 percentage points. March 1997 to March 2007, states that provided a high level of LifeLine support had low-income penetration growth of 3.2 percent overall. States providing low support had a decline of 0.6 percent. Vermont had the highest low-income penetration with 94.9 percent. Arkansas was lowest with 79.4 percent. The reports used census data.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin aims to fast-track a TracFone request to become an eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) for the Universal Service Fund (USF) LifeLine and LinkUp program, he told a Thursday press conference. Approving TracFone’s request would “add an additional service option” for low-income consumers, he said. The request had been held up because it was included in the USF cap proposal, Martin said. Last month, he circulated it as a separate order, he said. “The cap has not moved forward yet, and as a result I don’t think it’s fair to hold the grant of this particular application up any longer,” Martin said. Meanwhile, Martin didn’t know if the interim cap proposal would progress soon, he said. “But I hope so.”

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Technologists from communications- numbering companies accused federal and state policymakers of lagging decades behind the growth of identifiers in Internet Protocol activities and the opportunity for phone numbers to convey much more information than they do now. Conventional numbers are “not going away,” Tom Moresco, Telcordia’s principal product manager for interconnection products, said at the VON conference late Tuesday. Fellow panelists agreed.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Technologists from communications- numbering companies accused federal and state policymakers of lagging decades behind the growth of identifiers in Internet Protocol activities and the opportunity for phone numbers to convey much more information than they do now. Conventional numbers are “not going away,” Tom Moresco, Telcordia’s principal product manager for interconnection products, said at the VON conference late Tuesday. Fellow panelists agreed.

The proportion of long distance revenue carriers must contribute to the Universal Service Fund in the second quarter of 2008 increased to 11.3 percent from 10.2 percent in Q1, the FCC said Friday. To get the “contribution factor,” the agency divides projected carrier revenue by expected USF subsidies for the quarter. Of an estimated $1.91 billion in Q2 subsidies, about $1.15 billion is for the rural high-cost program, $532.53 million for the E-rate program, $208.08 million for low-income support and $61.18 million for the rural health-care program. Rural wireless carriers are to blame for the “hike” in phone bill USF fees, said Tom Tauke, Verizon public affairs, policy and communications vice president. He urged the FCC to vote for an interim cap. “Consumers will thank the FCC when three commissioners finally call a halt to funding windfalls for some companies from the Universal Service Fund,” he said. A wireless source shot back: “If you really want to do something about controlling fund growth, then a good place to look would be to change the rules that allow the incumbent’s support to grow even after the incumbent wireline carrier loses customers.”

Three Texas lawmakers told the Public Utilities Commission that implementing a PUC staff recommendation for a 60 percent cut in state high-cost subsidies to big incumbents may harm their rural constituents by impairing their access to affordable phone service. In letters to the PUC, State Reps. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, Chente Quintanilla, D-El Paso County, and Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, said many constituents have phone service only because of the state’s universal service high-cost fund, and any plans to shrink the fund must account for the effects on rural and low-income populations in high-cost areas. They called for public hearings statewide as part of the PUC proceeding. PUC Chairman Barry Smitherman said the PUC review covers only the subsidies going to the largest incumbent telecom companies and won’t affect small and rural incumbents’ universal service funding. He invited the lawmakers to air their concerns at the PUC’s universal service reform hearings, starting April 14 in Austin. The PUC staff called March 3 for a 60 percent cut in universal service high cost subsidies to large incumbent firms like AT&T and Verizon, estimated to cut the state high- cost fund to $165 million from $395 million. The staff plan would reduce subsidies by raising the cost benchmark and reducing the number of subsidy-eligible lines. The recommendation would end subsidies for second lines and for all lines in exchanges classified as fully competitive. The staff filed its recommendation as part of a PUC review of its universal service programs (Case 34723). Many competitive carriers back the staff’s position. Large incumbents oppose it, saying the fund is inadequate and demanding it nearly double, to $750 million.

The FCC would be more transparent, more responsive to consumers and less focused on “prescriptive” rulemaking under President John McCain, campaign advisors and former staffers said in interviews. The Arizona Republican senator would want a “nimbler” commission run more like the FTC to protect the public, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, senior policy advisor to the McCain campaign.

Universal Electronics signed a license deal with Hillcrest Labs to use Freespace pointing and motion control technology in new remote controls. They didn’t release the terms or say when the first remotes featuring the technology might ship. Universal “will be exploring potential product concepts to offer pointing and motion-control technology to its customers around the world,” it said. “As consumer demand for television entertainment and control continues to evolve, we are always seeking new ways to differentiate” Universal products, said CEO Paul Arling. Freespace technology was created by Hillcrest for use in advanced TV remote controls and other devices, including Hillcrest’s Loop remote control. The technology is being shown this week at Universal’s booth at the IPTV World Forum Europe conference in London. Logitech has already licensed Hillcrest’s technology for use in the cordless MX Air mouse. Freespace technology allows subscription TV service providers and CE manufacturers to embed advanced motion control and pointing capabilities into a wide range of devices and form factors, it said. The devices can then enable advanced digital media applications and services “to drive new revenue for service providers and manufacturers,” Hillcrest said. The company closed a $25 million financing round led by new investor AllianceBernstein, it said in January. Previous investors including New Enterprise Associates, Columbia Capital and Grotech Capital Group also took part, Hillcrest said. It said it planned to “use the funds to further extend its pointer-based application creation platform and pointing technology to a wide range of devices that control and display digital media.”

The Arkansas Public Service Commission set eligibility and reporting requirements for competitive carriers that want federal universal service subsidies. It put off to a future docket deciding whether these requirements would also apply to carriers seeking state subsidies. The new rules won’t apply to incumbents that receive the subsidies because they already are under a broader set of provider requirements. AT&T in 2006 asked the PSC to adopt verbatim the FCC’s eligible telecom carrier (ETC) requirements for universal service subsidies such as setting a five-year plan for using subsidies to improve service quality, with annual progress reports on where the money went. The PSC followed the general outline of the FCC requirements but required only a two-year improvement plan (Case 06-050-R). For wireless ETCs, the PSC said they can satisfy the emergency- functionality test by showing they have taken “reasonable” precautions to maintain service in emergencies. It said wireless carriers would satisfy the “comparable service” test by showing they offer local calling plans with various usage allowances. The PSC also said its rules will be applied case by case as competitive carriers seek ETC status. AT&T had wanted all ETCs subject to identical treatment, but the PSC said the equal treatment of ETCs required by law doesn’t mean all competitive ETCs must be treated identically. The PSC said only incumbent telcos and wireless carriers are receiving universal service subsidies. It said it wanted to keep flexibility to accommodate special circumstances that may require special consideration in funding.