Using a flat-fee system to support the Universal Service Fund (USF) would hit Latino customers with higher costs, several citizens organizations warned Thurs. A proposal supported by FCC Chmn. Martin would base carrier contributions to the USF on a flat, per phone number basis. Since carriers pass those costs onto customers, low-volume customers would pay the same as those who make a lot of phone calls, said the groups, part of the Keep USF Fair Coalition. The USF is now funded on a revenue basis, so low-volume customers pay less than high-volume users. Those who make few long-distance calls or use prepaid wireless phones will either have to pay more or start paying for the first time, said the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Latino Issues Forum and Consumer Action. “Other than older Americans, Latinos and Hispanics account for the largest number of Americans who would end up paying more under the Martin plan for USF” because they are very low income according to Census Bureau data, the groups said in a news release.

Citing the DTV transition mandate he helped pass, House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.) said Wed. he’s ready to deliver telecom bills he hopes President Bush can sign in 2006. “It’s time to stop talking and to start working,” said Barton, saying he plans to meet next week with Ranking Member Dingell (D-Mich.), Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.), Ranking Member Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pickering (R-Miss.) -- the main artisans behind the draft “BITs” telecom bill. His panel has made “tremendous progress” on the bill and expects introduction in Feb. or early March, with a hearing and markup to follow, Barton told an Internet conference,

Citing the DTV transition mandate he helped pass, House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.) said Wed. he’s ready to deliver telecom bills he hopes President Bush can sign in 2006. “It’s time to stop talking and to start working,” said Barton, saying he plans to meet next week with Ranking Member Dingell (D-Mich.), Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.), Ranking Member Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pickering (R-Miss.) -- the main artisans behind the draft “BITs” telecom bill. His panel has made “tremendous progress” on the bill and expects introduction in Feb. or early March, with a hearing and markup to follow, Barton told an Internet conference,

Both competing standards for mobile TV being discussed in Europe should be developed, said applicants for mobile TV licences in Germany. To start mobile TV services during the upcoming soccer World Cup, German media authorities published calls for tenders for the first mobile TV license based on the Digital Multimedia Bcstg. (DMB) standard. Network operators and hardware companies in Europe focused more on the Digital Video Bcstg.-Handheld (DVB-H) standard, mainly developed by European engineers and standardized at the European Telecom Standards Institute (ETSI).

As debate continues over Telecom Act efficacy,(CD Feb 7 p5), the law’s 10th birthday will be marked today (Feb. 8) by: (1) A 10 a.m. American Enterprise Institute (AEI) conference featuring a speech by FCC Chmn. Martin. (2) A 6 p.m. Union Station reception sponsored by CompTel. “The Act’s reputation has waxed and waned with the fortunes of the communications sector,” said Harold Furchtgott-Roth, who organized the AEI conference. The Act was “adored” from 1996 to about 2000 -- boom years that saw the value of publicly- traded securities grow by hundreds of billions of dollars, he wrote in a Tues. N.Y. Sun column. “Since 2001, the communications sector has struggled and so has the Act’s reputation,” he said. CompTel Pres. Earl Comstock, who as a Senate staffer helped draft the Act, said it paved the way for entrepreneurs such as CompTel’s members “to bring technological innovation to the marketplace and choice to consumers.” But FCC’s implementation of the law was “a failure,” Comstock said. In an interview, he listed many aspects he finds lacking in agency rules. The FCC didn’t limit the E-rate funding program to telecom services, as the Act’s framers planned, but included other services as well, he said. The FCC’s “original steps to open the local [telecom] market to competition were correct” but the agency then “undermined the Telecom Act” by stipulating different treatment for circuit-switched services and packet-switched services, Comstock said. The agency’s definition of DSL as an information service will make it hard to support universal service, he said. Congress viewed the basic transmission on which information services ride as a regulated telecom service, he said. As a result of FCC deregulatory actions, “none of the provisions Congress spent so much time developing apply to Internet access,” he said. The FCC “eviscerated the statute by defining carriers out of it.” Telecom analyst Scott Cleland said he thinks “the Telecom Act got the big idea right -- ending monopoly, promoting competition and encouraging new technology -- but the implementation was a disaster and contributed to the CLEC bubble.” It was risky for the FCC to try “to delay Bell entry [into long distance service] until a CLEC industry could be created,” Cleland said: “It was a huge failure in government to try to create a market that did not respect supply and demand.”

As debate continues over Telecom Act efficacy, the law’s 10th birthday will be marked today (Feb. 8) by: (1) A 10 a.m. American Enterprise Institute (AEI) conference featuring a speech by FCC Chmn. Martin. (2) A 6 p.m. Union Station reception sponsored by CompTel. “The Act’s reputation has waxed and waned with the fortunes of the communications sector,” said Harold Furchtgott-Roth, who organized the AEI conference. The Act was “adored” from 1996 to about 2000 -- boom years that saw the value of publicly-traded securities grow by hundreds of billions of dollars, he wrote in a Tues. N.Y. Sun column. “Since 2001, the communications sector has struggled and so has the Act’s reputation,” he said. CompTel Pres. Earl Comstock, who as a Senate staffer helped draft the Act, said it paved the way for entrepreneurs such as CompTel’s members “to bring technological innovation to the marketplace and choice to consumers.” But FCC’s implementation of the law was “a failure,” Comstock said. In an interview, he listed many aspects he finds lacking in agency rules. The FCC didn’t limit the E-rate funding program to telecom services, as the Act’s framers planned, but included other services as well, he said. The FCC’s “original steps to open the local [telecom] market to competition were correct” but the agency then “undermined the Telecom Act” by stipulating different treatment for circuit- switched services and packet-switched services, Comstock said. The agency’s definition of DSL as an information service will make it hard to support universal service, he said. Congress viewed the basic transmission on which information services ride as a regulated telecom service, he said. As a result of FCC deregulatory actions, “none of the provisions Congress spent so much time developing apply to Internet access,” he said. The FCC “eviscerated the statute by defining carriers out of it.” Telecom analyst Scott Cleland said he thinks “the Telecom Act got the big idea right -- ending monopoly, promoting competition and encouraging new technology -- but the implementation was a disaster and contributed to the CLEC bubble.” It was risky for the FCC to try “to delay Bell entry [into long distance service] until a CLEC industry could be created,” Cleland said: “It was a huge failure in government to try to create a market that did not respect supply and demand.”

The Me. PUC plans a Feb. 9 hearing on a proposal to set up a subsidized public interest payphone service offering free intrastate phone calls. The Office of Public Advocate urged the program, calling public interest payphones essential in emergencies, low-income areas and rural areas without good wireless service. The proposal would allow local officials and the public to petition for coinless public-interest phones at post office lobbies, transportation centers, highway rest areas, municipal buildings, health facilities and the like. Phones would provide free intrastate calling, with no limit on frequency or duration. Out-of state calls would require phone cards or credit cards. The program would be funded by a $50,000 subsidy from the state universal service fund that was authorized in a 2005 state law. Social service and welfare agencies back the idea as a way to ensure low-income people have access to phones. But the state’s 16 phone firms oppose it, saying the phones will get little use and maintenance costs likely will exceed the subsidy.

Wading into hostile territory, a university participant in Google’s book-scanning project pleaded with academic publishers to embrace digitization efforts by libraries and companies as both a boon to business and insurance against unforeseen events like natural disasters. In remarks prepared for a keynote speech, U. of Mich. Pres. Mary Coleman told the Assn. of American Publishers at its D.C. conference Mon. libraries face the same pressure as the state’s auto industry. She quoted a Ford official’s statement defending its cutbacks: “Change or die.” But the audience sharply questioned Coleman about Google’s motives and why they weren’t consulted for the project.

Bills addressing E-911 funding bases, wireless services, and regulatory administration came into the state legislative spotlight as 2006 sessions entered their 2nd month. Those issues shared attention with bills on phone consumer privacy, VoIP taxation and telemarketing.

Civil liberties and consumer groups lobbying the EU on Information Society issues are hampered by lack of money and access, observers said. On matters from privacy to digital rights to intellectual property (IP), these groups - part of “civil society” -- find it hard to compete with industry for lawmaker, govt. and Eurocrat attention, they said. Telecom sector lobbyists seem generally satisfied with the process’s transparency (CD Jan 25 p9), but rights advocates said the system has grave problems current reform efforts won’t fix.