The House Telecom Subcommittee is gearing up for Telecom Act reform, with a hearing planned soon to determine what changes should be considered to the Act, and “what are the hot topics,” an aide to Rep. Terry (R-Neb.) told OPASTCO members at a meeting Wed. in Washington. Revising the Telecom Act will take 3-5 years but Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.) wants to get busy on it the next 5-6 months, said Rob Stien, Terry’s telecom counsel. “Members have to learn now what’s going on in your communities before we start a rewrite of the 96 Act,” he said. “You've got from now until we break in August,” he said.

Year-long talks aimed at working out an agreement on access charges through the Intercarrier Compensation Forum (ICF) have collapsed for now, with the formal departure Wed. of several key members -- including BellSouth, which initiated discussions with AT&T last year. Many of the discussions had been at BellSouth’s Washington office.

OPASTCO members from rural telephone companies throughout the country are lobbying on Capitol Hill this week to urge 3 things: Changes to the universal service program, a delay in VoIP legislation and repeal of the estate tax. “The message you're taking to Capitol Hill will directly impact your companies’ future, the viability of your communities and the ability of your customers to have modern service,” OPASTCO Pres. John Rose told more than 130 members Tues. at a morning briefing before the Hill visits: “Go to the Hill and deliver the message for rural areas.”

Advanced telecom capabilities such as broadband are being deployed to all Americans in “a reasonable and timely fashion,” telecom and cable operators said in comments to the FCC Mon. The comments were filed in response to the 4th inquiry launched by the Commission under Sec. 706 of the Telecom Act earlier this year (CD March 12 p6). The Act requires that the Commission conclude the inquiry and report to Congress within 180 days.

A group of CLECs revealed an intercarrier compensation plan Tues. different from the bill-&-keep (B&K) proposal being developed by the Intercarrier Compensation Forum (ICF), made up of carriers including the Bells and AT&T. B&K basically would eliminate payments such as access charges and reciprocal compensation and make up any shortfalls through other means such as the subscriber line charge (SLC). The plan presented at the ALTS conference Tues. by the Cost-Based Intercarrier Compensation Coalition (CBICC) calls for retaining a “unified cost-based” payment for circuit-switched traffic with a “minimal increase” in the SLC.

The National Exchange Carrier Assn. (NECA) dismissed Pres. Bob Anderson, Vp-Gen. Counsel Ken Levy, and Vp-CFO Ron Cook Fri. following an investigation of financial irregularities. NECA said the 3 had been put on administrative leave March 26 pending a probe of compensation issues, which one source said involved a NECA subsidiary. NECA said that although the officers hadn’t committed any crimes, they didn’t live up to the “canons of communication, candor and confidence expected of them” by NECA’s board. NECA said the actions of the 3 wouldn’t hurt the organization’s effectiveness. “At no time did the auditors or the investigators raise concerns regarding NECA’s access charge pooling, universal service fund data collection responsibilities, cost accounting procedures, other regulatory or legal matters, or any of the organizations’ contracts or its dealings with customers,” the group said in a statement: “Nor did the investigator or the auditors raise any concerns with regard to compliance with FCC rules.”

Advanced telecom service lines connecting homes and businesses to the Internet increased 32% during the first half of 2003, to 16.3 million, FCC’s Trends in Telephone Service report said. It said ADSL lines rose 16% to 2.5 million during the first 6 months of 2003, compared to a 43% increase to 11.9 million for cable modem lines. The report said CLECs provided 26.9 million (14.7%) of the about 183 million nationwide local telephone lines that were in service to end users, compared to 24.8 million (13.2%) of the lines in Dec. 2002. About 1/4 of CLEC end-user lines are served over local loop facilities that the CLECs own, it said. ILECs reported providing other carriers 2.2 million lines on a resale basis in June 2003, compared to 2.7 million 6 months earlier, the report said. ILECs also provided 17.2 million UNE loops in June 2003, compared to 14.5 million 6 months earlier, it said. The report said the number of international calls from the U.S. jumped to 5.9 billion in 2002 from 200 million in 1980. In 2002, it said Americans spent about $9.8 billion on international calls. On average, carriers billed 28 cents per min. for international calls in 2002 -- an 80% decline since 1980. The report said 29 million households had been added to the nation’s telephone system since Nov. 1983, to a total of 107.1 million in Nov. 2003. According to research firm TNS Telecoms, it said, the average monthly household telecom expenditures were $83 in 2002, including $36 to local exchange, $12 to long distance and $35 to wireless carriers. According to the CTIA, it said, the average monthly wireless bill was $49.91 in Dec. 2003, compared with $61.48 in Dec. 1993. The report said in 2003, total universal service support disbursements were $3.3 billion, compared to $3 billion in 2002. It said the increase reflected a full-year of the new interstate common line support mechanism, which began in July 2002. Disbursements of low-income support rose to $713 million in 2003 from $673 million in 2002, it said. In funding year 2002, it said $2.2 billion was committed and $1.3 billion disbursed to schools and libraries -- www.fcc.gov/wcb/stats.

Promotions in FCC Wireless Bureau Broadband Div.: Stephen Buenzow to assoc. division chief; Peter Corea to special counsel… Peter Ritcher, ex-SBC, named Cingular Wireless CFO… New on Fine Point Technologies board: Edward English of Performance Partnering, Bruce Luehrs, Edison Venture Fund, and Edward McCrossen, Fiberlink Communications… Hellenic Telecom named Panagis Vourloumis, ex-Frigoglass, chmn. and CEO… Optibase promoted Danny Lustiger to CFO… New at Electronic Frontier Foundation: Tim Pozar, ex-Bay Area Research Wireless Network, technical dir.; Analee Newitz, ex-San Francisco Bay Guardian, media coordinator/policy analyst… Howard Buskirk, ex- Telecommunications Reports, named Communications Daily senior editor, covering wireless… NARUC nominated Mich. PSC Comr. Robert Nelson to the Federal State Joint Board on Universal Service, replacing Nan Thompson of Alaska, who leaves the Alaska Commission… Promotions at Cox: Bob Wilson to senior vp-programming; Linda Kohlhagen to vp-gen. mgr., Cox Media Orange Co.; Tina Denicole to vp-business operations, Las Vegas; Winston Warrior to dir.-high speed Internet mktg… Jennifer Reichenbach, ex-Turner Bcstg., returns to Discovery as vp-new media distribution; Sandi Castro, ex-Fresh Pictures, becomes account dir.-western region… Jim Paluzzi, ex-Boise State Radio, named to new position of vp-applied technology, Colo. Public Radio.

NEW ORLEANS -- FCC commissioners speaking at NCTA’s convention here differed on the agency’s approach to VoIP, with Comr. Copps being particularly critical of how the new technology is being handled. “I think this stuff is lodged in regulatory hell right now,” he said. “We're encouraging companies to spend a lot of time rolling this out and to game the system because we've got an old and inadequate system of regulations.” He said that current rules on intercarrier compensation are “an invitation for waste and fraud and abuse” and the FCC needs to revise that regime and take a holistic look at VoIP so that “we can make much more intelligent decisions about these technologies.” His remarks came during a luncheon panel that also featured Comrs. Abernathy, Adelstein and Martin, as well as Acting Asst. Commerce Secy. Michael Gallagher.

Even if it’s VoIP, telecom is “an essential public service” and local govts. will want to make sure reliable service is available to the public, said Marilyn Showalter, chmn. of the Washington Utilities & Transportation Commission. NATOA Pres. Coralie Wilson said govts. “simply cannot let technical standards lapse” just because of VoIP: “We need assurance the network will continue to operate.” Speaking on the same local govt. panel here, Neb. PSC Comr. Anne Boyle said “consumer protection goes beyond CALEA and E911.” She said VoIP providers need to comply with best practices, as well as with good customer service, and consumers are “who the government is there to protect.” At a later panel of FCC bureau chiefs, Wilson raised the question of mandating technical standards for new telecom services. He got little response, other than from Robert Pepper, FCC chief of policy development. Pepper indicated only that the Network Reliability & Interoperability Council would deal with such issues, and that the diversification of telecom into wireless and IP-based services increases diversity of the overall network. Local govt. officials spent much of their time talking about how to assure Universal Service Fund (USF) funding with the arrival of new technologies. Cal. PUC Comr. Susan Kennedy endorsed a per-number USF fee. Showalter agreed that’s probably “pretty reasonable,” though she said in the long term telephone numbers won’t be needed. Fla. PSC Comr. Charles Davidson, however, said USF “needs a business plan… It shouldn’t be a program that just expands and becomes a new tax.” Showalter suggested broadband will be necessary in the future and if people can’t afford it “government must assure that it gets there.” Kennedy, however, said Internet and video services “clearly” don’t qualify for USF. -- MF