The FCC won’t apply regulatory fees to calls placed by military personnel overseas to family or friends at home, the agency said in an order issued Thurs. The order follows through on the Call Home Act passed by Congress last year that requires the agency to reduce calling costs for armed forces personnel. AT&T said the order will let it offer “more affordable phone service” to military personnel, which is “the least that we can do considering the sacrifices” of the military. The agency won’t apply Universal Service Fund and Telecom Relay Service contribution requirements, saying this is “an initial but immediate response” to the Act. It said it also will issue a notice of proposed rulemaking soon that will propose additional steps the FCC might take to carry out the Act. “In the interim, we invite military personnel and their families, as well as other parties who have experience calling to or from American military bases abroad, to provide us with first-hand information concerning the various means Armed Forces personnel currently use to communicate,” the FCC said. The Commissioners issued a joint statement saying they “applaud Congress for passing legislation designed to reduce one of the many burdens facing our troops stationed around the globe.” Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Stevens (R-Alaska) said the FCC action is a first step in carrying out the Act that the Committee pushed through Congress last year. “As a former military pilot stationed overseas during World War II, I know how much it means to be able to communicate with families and loved ones at home,” Stevens said: “It can cost soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan as much as 33 cents a minute to call their families in Alaska.” The FCC action will immediately lower phone costs for military families, he added.

Action on universal service contributions reform doesn’t appear to be a front-burner issue at the FCC, judging from comments that FCC Chmn. Martin made in response to a question at a news conference Wed. The Commission will “have to see the results of changes last summer” to the contributions methodology before determining how quickly the agency should move on broader reform, he said. “We will have to see if [the USF] starts to creep up” again, he added. The FCC in June placed universal service obligations on VoIP providers and raised the wireless safe harbor -- both actions billed as interim measures until the FCC can institute broader reform of the way carriers contribute to the USF. Rising demand for USF subsidies has been taxing the fund and placing increasing pressure on the carriers that contribute to it.

The Me. PUC okayed AT&T’s offer to make retroactive contributions to the state universal service fund and Telecom Education Access Fund from prepaid calling card revenue collected Oct. 2003-Nov. 2004. The offer settled a dispute over whether intrastate fees apply to calling cards when the calling card platform is outside the state, and whether the cards were an information service. AT&T conceded defeat after 2005-2006 FCC rulings that only originating and terminating points matter in determining jurisdiction, and that menu-driven or IP-based calling cards aren’t information services exempt from any regulatory assessments. AT&T (Case 2005-221) agreed to make payments on the cards for Dec. 2004- March 2005. But as part of the agreement it need not pay on menu-driven cards used March 2005-Oct. 2006, while the FCC considers their status. From Nov. 2006 on, AT&T will report all intrastate revenue from all types of prepaid calling cards, consistent with the FCC decisions.

Some new lawmakers joining the House and Senate Commerce Committees are active in telecom issues, while others have backgrounds of business or law. Rep. Harman (D-Cal.) is the most experienced legislator on telecom issues to join the committee. She staked out a clear position on net neutrality last Congress by voting for an amendment that Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Markey (D-Mass.), then in the minority, offered to Rep. Barton’s (R-Tex.) video franchise bill (HR-5252).

Lawmakers introduced several telecom measures Thurs. on the opening day of Congress -- some of which didn’t make it last Congress. Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Stevens (R-Alaska) introduced 5 measures, including a bill that would reform the Universal Service Fund (USF) program that Senate Minority Whip Lott (R-Miss.) is co-sponsoring. Stevens also is introducing a measure that would address FCC and FTC roles in policing pretexting -- impersonating someone else’s identity to illegally gain access to private phone records. A Judiciary bill was enacted last Congress.

A new fair-use effort is marrying Google’s riches with the drawing power of Stanford U.’s Larry Lessig, a seasoned litigator’s expertise and a national network of high-powered volunteer lawyers to protect user-generated content from claims of infringement. An early win came when, after the project made a fair-use claim, Universal Music Group “backed off” on a cease & desist letter sent video maker Javier Prato, said Anthony Falzone, exec. dir of Stanford’s Fair Use Project, late last week. In a video, “Jesus Will Survive,” posted on Google and YouTube, Prato used much of Gloria Gaynor’s disco classic “I Will Survive,” spurring Universal’s letter. The label thought better of its action when it saw that it was dealing not merely with Prato, but with Stanford and Lessig, Falzone said.

The Neb. PSC scheduled a Jan. 22 conference to set the procedural schedule for a case seeking to revise UNE loop rate zones to make them consistent with high-cost support areas identified late last year in a universal service funding case. Neb. has 3 UNE loop rate zones, reflecting geographic cost differences, but the staff said the state (Case PI-112) may have to modify the zones given the universal service order’s cost findings.

A new fair-use effort is marrying some of Google’s riches with the drawing power of Stanford U.’s Larry Lessig, a seasoned litigator’s expertise and a national network of high-powered volunteer lawyers to protect user-generated content from claims of infringement. An early win came when, after the project made a fair-use claim, Universal Music Group “backed off” on a cease & desist letter sent video maker Javier Prato, Anthony Falzone, exec. dir of Stanford’s Fair Use Project, said late last week. In a video, “Jesus Will Survive,” posted on Google and YouTube, Prato used much of Gloria Gaynor’s disco classic “I Will Survive,” spurring Universal’s letter. The label thought better of its action when it saw that it was dealing not merely with Prato, but with Stanford and its law professor Lessig, Falzone said.

“High-cost” rural telecom companies got 58.7% of $6.5 billion disbursed by the Universal Service Fund in 2005, the FCC said. High cost support totaled $3.8 billion, compared with about $3.5 billion in 2004 -- a rise the report traced to growth in support for competitive carriers from $0.3 billion in 2004 to $0.6 billion in 2005. The E-rate program for schools and libraries accounted for 28.6% of the USF, about $2 billion. Support for low-income consumers accounted for 12.4% or about $804 million, up from 2004’s $763 million. The rural health care program drew about 0.4% or $25 million, the report said. In a snapshot of telecom industry revenue, the report showed the USF funded by charges levied on $234 billion, up from 2004’s $233 billion. Bell company access lines declined from about 136 million in 2004 to 127 million in 2005.

Fourteen states have ended rate regulation of nearly all retail phone services provided by their largest incumbent telcos, and 31 others have relaxed retail rate regulation of their biggest telcos. Neither the consumer horrors forecast by opponents nor the consumer heaven predicted by supporters has come to pass. Instead, state and industry representatives said, telecom pricing has stayed fairly stable, as the market and forces such as technology took over to discipline prices.