House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Markey (D-Mass.) is waging an effective oversight campaign over the FCC, NTIA and DTV transition issues, according to interviews with industry sources and analysts. Markey presides today (Tues.) over a 4th hearing on broadband, examining how the U.S. policy compares with those of other countries. Controversy is likely given new rankings that show that the U.S. slipping even further behind in broadband deployment.

The FCC proposed to cut most regulatory fees about 2.84% in a rulemaking made public Thurs. Cuts in individual license fees vary slightly, due to rounding and other factors; some, such as CMRS Messaging, do not change. A likely issue of interest is a tentative conclusion that the FCC should levy regulatory fees on providers of interconnected VoIP. After deciding last year that VoIP operators should pay into the Universal Service Fund, the agency now tilts toward levying the fees on VoIP - and should, since it’s required to recover from telecom operators the cost of regulation. The FCC didn’t propose a specific fee for VoIP, but asked whether to levy the fees and to base them on revenue or phone numbers. The FCC said downward revisions are allowed because Congress required it recoup $290.3 million in regulatory fees this fiscal year, down from $298.8 million last year.

The FCC proposed to cut most regulatory fees about 2.84% in a rulemaking made public Thurs. Cuts in individual license fees vary slightly, due to rounding and other factors; some, such as CMRS Messaging, do not change. A likely issue of interest is a tentative conclusion that the FCC should levy regulatory fees on providers of interconnected VoIP. After deciding last year that VoIP operators should pay into the Universal Service Fund, the agency now tilts toward levying the fees on VoIP - and should, since it’s required to recover from telecom operators the cost of regulation. The FCC didn’t propose a specific fee for VoIP, but asked whether to levy the fees and to base them on revenue or phone numbers. The FCC said downward revisions are allowed because Congress required it recoup $290.3 million in regulatory fees this fiscal year, down from $298.8 million last year.

The Vt. House Commerce Committee advanced 2 related bills to better align the state universal service fund with telecom technology and market trends. HB-268 would authorize state regulators to impose a universal service tax based on the sales price of retail telecom service provided to a Vt. address. The bill would exempt from the tax charges for pay phone services, paging, prepaid calling and non-voice data services. But it would tax VoIP and other IP-enabled voice services, and enhanced or value-added services. The bill specifies that the universal service fee is being imposed through the state’s taxation authority, and not under delegated federal Telecom Act authority. Its companion measure (HB-269)would allow state regulators the option to assess a flat universal service surcharge per line if necessary to keep the fund solvent or ensure nondiscriminatory application of charges.

The Vt. House Commerce Committee advanced 2 related bills to better align the state universal service fund with telecom technology and market trends. HB-268 would authorize state regulators to impose a universal service tax based on the sales price of retail telecom service provided to a Vt. address. The bill would exempt from the tax charges for pay phone services, paging, prepaid calling and non-voice data services. But it would tax VoIP and other IP-enabled voice services, and enhanced or value-added services. The bill specifies that the universal service fee is being imposed through the state’s taxation authority, and not under delegated federal Telecom Act authority. Its companion measure (HB-269)would allow state regulators the option to assess a flat universal service surcharge per line if necessary to keep the fund solvent or ensure nondiscriminatory application of charges.

Revenue-starved state and local officials are eyeing Nov. 1, when the congressional moratorium on Internet taxes expires, members of Congress warned at a meeting Tues. of the Computer & Communications Industry Assn. Other hot topics this Congress include Universal Service Fund reform, child protection online and net neutrality, they said.

Members of Congress floated ways to widen broadband, some at odds with one other, at a Tues. Computer & Communications Industry Assn. meeting. They discussed Universal Service Fund reform, the 700 MHz auction, Carterfone rules, net neutrality and white spaces, giving different predictions on this year’s legislative trends.

Congress should empower the FCC to set a la carte rules for cable, FCC Chmn. Martin said Tues. in an appearance before the House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee. Martin made his pitch in response to lawmaker outrage at shock jock Don Imus’s racist comments, saying the FCC is powerless to punish miscreants like the former radio host because indecency rules don’t apply. Lawmakers pressed Martin to explain why the FCC left Imus alone.

By capping or freezing universal service subsidies to rural carriers (CD April 13 p1), the FCC could create the perfect setting for a much-needed study of subsidy distribution, Embarq told a federal-state board in an April 12 filing. Freezing or capping rural subsidies would stabilize the high-cost program enough to do a more “granular” study of rural telecom costs, the company told the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service. Some areas of the country with very high costs don’t get Universal Service Fund (USF) support due to the way costs are measured, Embarq told the joint board, which is close to recommending measures, including a temporary cap, to halt USF growth. “The ability to accurately identify high-cost areas at a very granular level has reached a level of precision that was unimaginable only a few years ago,” Embarq said: “Advances in modeling, better data and ever-increasing computing power” give the Commission “a set of tools capable of producing a study to ensure that all high-cost areas that truly require explicit support are adequately supported,” Embarq said. The FCC should freeze or cap the fund while it works on “stabilizing” the USF, it said: “All things being equal, a temporary freeze would be preferable to a cap… since it ensures that no individual recipient would be made any worse off.” A cap could allow “the possibility of individual winners and losers underneath the cap,” Embarq said.

A state-federal regulatory board is expected to recommend a 2-year cap on the subsidies some rural carriers get from the Universal Service Fund (USF), sources said Thurs. The cap, which could be announced in a week or 2, probably will be applied only to competitive rural carriers, with incumbent landline rural telecom companies not subjected to the limit on subsidy growth, knowledgeable industry sources said. The so-called competitive eligible telecom carriers (CETCs) are mostly wireless.