Building access, Internet telephony, customer service quality and telemarketing took center stage in final panels as NARUC wrapped up its winter meeting in Washington Wed. All telecom resolutions adopted by policy committees were approved by NARUC’s board as official policy.

FCC Comr. Jonathan Adelstein told state regulators he expects to see decisions from state regulators regarding necessity of unbundled network element platforms (UNE-P) that will “surprise the skeptics” who believe states always will side with UNE-P.

NARUC’s telecom and consumer affairs staff subcommittees advanced 6 policy resolutions for consideration by NARUC’s Telecom & Consumer Affairs Committees at group’s winter meeting in Washington, which continues through Wed. They addressed wireless broadband, Internet telephony, spam, consumer education, carrier changeovers, wireless number portability.

Pulver.com, provider of voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) services, said resolution soon to be considered by NARUC would create “unnecessary taxes and a crippling administrative burden on the Internet.” NARUC resolution, to be considered at its winter meeting Feb. 22-26 in Washington, opposes allowing VoIP services to be treated differently from standard phone services. VoIP allows phone calls to be carried over Internet network. Pulver.com CEO Jeff Pulver said state utility comrs. were worried that “explosion” of Internet calls could threaten Universal Service Fund. “The reality is that it will be many years before the volume of calls diverted is enough to affect service funds, giving plenty of time to find a well-thought-out response,” said Pulver, who encouraged public to write state utility commissioners: “The move for immediate action is an attempt by some to stifle future Internet choices hidden in some legitimate concerns.” Peter Bluhm, policy dir. for Vt. Public Service Board and author of resolution, said it was response to AT&T petition to FCC requesting clarification of access charges on VOIP calls. Bluhm said if AT&T was requesting changes only in interstate calls, then “NARUC would have nothing to say,” since local utility commissions regulate intrastate calls. However, if VoIP network were declared information service, as opposed to telecom service, then access charges might be avoided and AT&T and others could use network without paying for it, he said. But Bluhm said resolution was merely document to get discussion started about VoIP. “The question in many states is: ‘What’s different?'” Bluhm said of VoIP. “Why should you get free use of the facilities on both ends?”

Western Wireless developed rebuttal to recent OPASTCO white paper that urged regulators to be more careful in giving universal service support to wireless companies that competed against rural ILECs (CD Jan 22 p9). Among Western Wireless’s points: (1) Rural customers should have access to service comparable in price and quality to urban areas and “from a range of competitive service providers.” (2) Congress didn’t intend for high-cost support to flow to only one eligible telecom carrier (ETC), “nor only to the first service provider to be designated in a study area.” (3) FCC was “exactly right when it created the presumption that a rural area will benefit from competition unless solid economic data is presented to show that funding to more than one ETC promotes uneconomic competition.” Western Wireless Vp Gene Dejordy is to appear on panel with OPASTCO Pres. John Rose at Legg Mason telecom conference in N.Y. today (Feb. 13).

Ore. PUC expanded state’s high-cost fund to cover local exchange carriers in state’s rural areas. Previously, only nonrural local carriers operating in Qwest and Verizon territories could participate in state universal service fund. PUC (Case UM 1017) adopted different methods for rural and nonrural carriers to calculate applicable costs for universal service purposes. It continued use of forward- looking structure to determine nonrural carriers’ costs but said costs applicable to rural carriers would be established by analyzing embedded costs. That use of embedded rural costs is interim, PUC said, until FCC issues final ruling on how to calculate universal service costs of rural carriers. PUC said high-cost support would be portable to CLECs in rural areas as it was elsewhere in state. Expansion of program will require increase in fund size to $58 million from $47 million and will raise current 5.5% state universal service surcharge to as much as 6.7%. Exact amount of surcharge increase will be set later, once up-to-date cost information has been collected. Separately, PUC opened proceeding to consider Verizon proposal for rules to govern mass customer migrations when carrier abandons service and leaves state’s markets. Verizon’s proposal would require departing carriers to give advance notice and file exit plan that ensured orderly transition to other providers. Proposal is similar to mass migration rules adopted last year in N.Y. Schedule will be set later.

National Telecom Co-op Assn. has 5 “guiding principles” for its regulatory and legislative agenda this year, CEO Michael Brunner said at group’s annual meeting this week: (1) Rural carriers should continue to receive universal service support based on actual costs. (2) Support should be used “to reduce the burden of high-cost service, not to create a windfall for a low-cost carrier.” (3) Only carriers capable of providing high-quality service “to all customers in a service area over their own network, or in combination with another,” should be eligible for universal service support. (4) Support should be broadly based and all providers of telecom services “should share the burden.” (5) Universal Service Fund cap should be reviewed to ensure sufficient support.

President Bush’s budget released Mon. proposed legislation that would assess user fees on unauctioned spectrum licenses. Few details were included in budget as to which unauctioned licenses would be subject to such fee, but it did say fees would begin in 2005 and would total $1.9 billion in first 10 years.

Neb. PSC called for comments by Feb. 21 on proposal to require that all local exchange service providers, regardless of company type or technology used, be required to offer Lifeline and Link-Up services to low-income households. Carriers also would be declared eligible to draw from universal service subsidies for Lifeline/Link-Up support. PSC proposal would declare all local exchange providers eligible for universal service funds to support subsidized telecom service to rural health care providers. Agency said carriers opposed to proposal should offer suggestions as to which types of providers should be obligated to provide Lifeline/Link-Up and subsidized rural health telecom services. In another matter, PSC gave Advantage Telecom until March 12 to respond to charges that carrier had engaged in slamming. Complaint by PSC’s Communications Dept. calls for punishing carrier for slamming and for failure to respond to inquiries on slamming complaints. Complaint called carrier’s marketing practices “highly suspect.”

Cal. PUC increased to 2% from 1.42% monthly surcharge that supports state’s high-cost fund. PUC said it raised fee, effective with March bills, because state legislature last year took $241 million from state universal service fund to help balance state budget. In another matter, PUC revoked interexchange service certificate of Titan Telecom, saying company had misled agency about its managerial competence to provide service. PUC said Titan had failed to disclose on certification application that several states had prosecuted prior company run by Titan’s owner, Christopher Bucci, for slamming customers. That company was ACI Communications.