CALEA requirements shouldn’t apply to data networks run by educational institutions, since they aren’t common carriers and the obligations could create financial burdens and other problems, Cornell U. told the FCC. Mon. was the deadline for organizations to comment to the FCC on applying CALEA to broadband Internet access services and VoIP providers (ET 04-295). “Imprecise wording in the Commission’s… order has resulted in potentially over- broad statements regarding the reach of CALEA,” the university said. “If Cornell is not providing services for hire, it should be exempt from CALEA.” Cornell also voiced concern about unclear “legal liabilities and inexact administrative and financial burdens.” CALEA compliance could “have an adverse effect on civil liberties and personal privacy,” said Information Technologies Vp Polley McClure. “Given its defects, its value does not compare to the value that would be lost in creativity, innovation and other unique contributions that higher education makes to American society,” she said in Nov. 10 comments. Subsentio, a firm that helps rural telephone companies build secure networks, said the FCC shouldn’t exempt rural carriers from CALEA. “The lack of surveillance by the nation’s LEAs [law enforcement agencies] in rural areas will allow criminals to communicate freely and without monitoring… using the new communication infrastructure being developed in… rural networks,” said Subsentio in comments filed Nov. 11. The company said it knows CALEA compliance could be a financial hardship on rural telcos so “universal service type funding” should be provided. Funding could be collected “through small fees” on subscribers, Subsentio said: “Subsentio would support a nationwide tax of $.01 per subscriber per month or less if it was spread across all ISP and/or VoIP subscribers nationwide.”

The FCC sought comments on a TracFone Wireless plan for complying with an FCC order letting the carrier get Universal Service Fund support. The FCC earlier this year (CD Sept 7 p2) decided to conditionally exempt TracFone from a bar on firms that don’t own facilities participating in the agency’s Lifeline low-income support program. But the agency imposed certain E-911 conditions and required TracFone to show how it expects to implement them. TracFone asked the Commission to ease those conditions, saying “strict compliance” would be “burdensome” and wouldn’t provide “any greater assurance of emergency service availability than would the approach” it proposed (CD Oct 12 p5). Comments are due Nov. 28, replies Dec. 11 -- (96-45).

House and Senate conferees agreed Fri. to exempt the universal service fund (USF) from Anti-Deficiency Act accounting rules for a year, and to bar the FCC from limiting USF support to primary lines. Senate Commerce Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) brokered the USF deal Thurs. night with House Commerce Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.), who wants to overhaul USF. Stevens thought he had sewn up the arrangement, but learned after the Thurs. conferees’ meeting that the primary-line provision wasn’t in the bill. “I didn’t sleep last night because of this amendment,” he told conferees during Fri.’s meeting, arguing passionately that the primary-line provision is essential in rural areas.

The FCC fined 2 telecom resellers a total of $699,412 for not contributing to the Universal Service Fund or adhering to requirements for registering and filing worksheets. Filings include financial data to help the FCC decide if carriers must contribute. The FCC fined Communication Services Integrated (CSII) $462,638 for not contributing, registering or filing worksheets until Feb. 2005, 4 years after starting operation. Global Teldata was fined $236,774 for similar violations, but only for a 2-year period. Global Teldata began making USF payments in Feb. but not enough, the FCC said. The firms’ violations were found by an FCC Enforcement Bureau project to identify resellers by comparing its list of registered service providers with lists of resellers from wholesale service providers. Both companies initially told the FCC they didn’t have enough interstate revenue to require universal service contributions. The bureau told them they still had to file worksheets. When they complied, the worksheets indicated both companies had enough revenue to require USF payments.

Cyberspace is a “tough neighborhood” full of accidents, glitches, and attacks, a former member of the White House’s National Security Council told lawmakers Thurs. The Defense Dept. faces several serious challenges concerning information assurance and data superiority, House Armed Services Committee members heard.

IPTV is “critical to rural telecom” in the National Rural Telcom Coop’s (NRTC) eyes, said Harry Thibideau NRTC mgr.-Satellite Industry Relations. Speaking Wed. at the Satellite Application Technology Conference (SATCON) in N.Y., Thibideau expanded on a Sept. NRTC announcement it’s teaming with SES Americom in an IPTV venture targeted at rural telcos. If it succeeds, the IPTV move could create more competition for cable companies and for DBS operators like DirecTV.

LAS VEGAS -- With new technologies increasingly clashing with traditional regulatory policy, there could be a “train wreck” soon for programs like universal service, panelists from Wall Street, Congress and academia warned Mon. at the Telecom ‘05 show here Mon. New technology offered by companies such as Microsoft and Google will change the landscape, they said.

Clearer rules and procedures would go far to improve management of the universal service fund (USF), the FCC was told by a variety of organizations. USF management can be confusing and inefficient for contributors and recipients, according to some comments, but many said the problems don’t stem from the Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC) the non-profit that administers USF. The agency had sought comments on the entire USF program, including the high-cost fund, E-rate and smaller programs (CD June 15 p8).

TracFone urged the FCC to allow prepaid wireless and wireline service providers to continue to contribute to the Universal Service Fund based on their interstate telecom service revenue. It said prepaid wireless service was similar to wireline prepaid calling card service because in both cases there’s no mechanism for seeking reimbursement of the providers’ universal service contributions from consumers due to the lack of billing relationship between the service provider and the end user. Replacing the revenue-based USF contribution methodology with the one based on telephone numbers would produce “significant dislocations” to prepaid wireless service providers and their consumers, TracFone said.

The Senate Commerce Committee Thurs. voted 19-3 to report out a DTV bill that includes $3 billion in converter box subsidies and $1.2 billion for an emergency communications program. The bill, which fulfills the committee’s budgetary responsibility to raise $4.8 billion, goes to the Senate Budget Committee, where it will be included in an overall reconciliation bill scheduled for markup Oct. 26.