NTIA and RUS, holding the fourth of six public meetings on their respective broadband stimulus programs, sought comment on three of the most critical questions officials will have to decide in awarding funds - what constitutes broadband and what is an underserved versus an unserved area. After two days on the road, NTIA and RUS officials were back in Washington for a session at Commerce Department headquarters.
Congressional telecom staffers bring long experience to table as the 111th Congress gets underway at a time when communications issues are a growing priority. The Senate and House Commerce Committees have new leadership for the full committee and communications subcommittees, with the Senate subcommittee reconvening after a hiatus of three years. Changes at the top level of the Commerce Committees, as well as new committee members, mean some changes in titles among key staffers. But most of those involve staffers who are often familiar to the telecom and media industries.
Congressional telecom staffers bring long experience to table as the 111th Congress gets underway at a time when communications issues are a growing priority. The Senate and House Commerce Committees have new leadership for the full committee and communications subcommittees, with the Senate subcommittee reconvening after a hiatus of three years. Changes at the top level of the Commerce Committees, as well as new committee members, mean some changes in titles among key staffers. But most of those involve staffers who are often familiar to the telecom and media industries.
State and industry officials debated possible limits to NTIA broadband grant eligibility in a Monday public hearing at the Commerce Department. In a morning roundtable, representatives of broadband providers and equipment makers urged a widely inclusive approach, while an official for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners suggested the NTIA mandate state involvement. Later in the day, officials discussed coordination between the NTIA and the Rural Utilities Service, and how to spur broadband adoption and public computer center capacity.
Carrier contributions to the Universal Service Fund will jump 19 percent this quarter, mostly from rising support requirements for rural health care and schools and libraries, the FCC said Friday. Next quarter, carriers must contribute 11.3 percent of their long distance revenue to USF. That’s 1.8 percentage points more than in Q1 and the same as in Q1 of 2008. To set the carrier “contribution factor,” the commission divides projected carrier revenue by expected subsidies for a quarter. Of a forecast $1.88 billion in Q2 subsidies, about $1.1 billion is projected for the rural high-cost program, $537 million for the E-Rate program, $201 million for low-income support and $67.5 million for the rural health-care program.
Corr Wireless appealed a decision by the administrator of the High Cost Universal Service Fund. The company said that in calculating a cap on payouts to eligible telecom carriers, the administrator neglected to take into account money disclaimed by Verizon Wireless and Alltel after their merger last year.
Congress must change the universal service program to cover broadband and eliminate inefficiencies, members and industry executives said at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing Thursday. Chairman Rick Boucher of Virginia said he plans to introduce revised legislation that builds on work he’s done with Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., the past three years. “We have consulted with dozens of stakeholders and sought consensus among various competing interests,” work that continues, Boucher said.
Web sites should follow uniform requirements about data collection for marketing, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., said at a Center for Democracy & Technology gala Tuesday night. Boucher said he plans to pursue legislation along with Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla.
Telecom and media companies should look for partnerships with public broadcasters to face the challenge created by changes in technology and the recession, said Larry Sidman, Association of Public TV Stations chief executive. “You and your companies are searching for ways to survive the downturn and emerge stronger,” he said in a speech to the Media Institute. “Let us build upon our personal and professional friendships and seek new ways to work together.”
The slumping economy increases pressure on Congress to examine the universal service program, which comes before Congress next week, said Larry Darby, former FCC Common Carrier Bureau chief and policy expert with the American Consumer Institute. There will be “enormous pressure” to make minimal changes to the program. The current system is “full of perverse incentives that encourage waste and inefficiency, from avoiding responsibility for contributing to the fund to a stampede of firms wanting access to draw from it,” Darby said. Other than goodwill, beneficiaries of the fund have no incentive to make efficient use of the money, he said. The commission seems “incapable” of enacting serious reform, and stakes are “enormous as billions of ‘free money’ rides on the FCC decisions,” he said.