Congress needs to pass legislation creating a system for mapping availability of broadband service throughout the country, senators and panelists said Tuesday at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing. Rural health interests, libraries and the AARP said increased use of broadband could help the economy and make health care more efficient. A national broadband policy is needed to direct deployment efforts, said Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii. “If there is no government policy then it becomes a political issue,” he said. Congress also is at a disadvantage because there isn’t enough specific information about how much it would cost to increase deployment. “We are hungry for facts on what you think it will cost.”

Congress needs to pass legislation creating a system for mapping availability of broadband service throughout the country, senators and panelists said Tuesday at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing. Rural health interests, libraries and the AARP said increased use of broadband could help the economy and make health care more efficient. A national broadband policy is needed to direct deployment efforts, said Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii. “If there is no government policy then it becomes a political issue,” he said. Congress also is at a disadvantage because there isn’t enough specific information about how much it would cost to increase deployment. “We are hungry for facts on what you think it will cost.”

The Iowa Utilities Board called for comments by Oct. 13 on whether it should implement a state universal service fund. The IUB addressed the issue in 2003 but chose not to move ahead. Now, the board said it’s time to take another look at the question and see if changed industry conditions now call for a state USF. The IUB said some local exchange providers have advocated a new look at the issue of state universal service subsidies because they believe recent and anticipated access charge reductions may impair their ability to provide local service at reasonable rates. The IUB said it appears access charges have been providing implicit subsidies for local rates, and that moving to explicit subsidies might offer economic and policy advantages. The IUB (Case NOI-08-2) asked commenting parties whether a state USF is needed, what services, providers or technologies should be subsidized, and what the goals of a state USF should be. The IUB also asked for comment on how contributions and subsidy levels should be set, whether there should be a limit on the number of subsidized carriers in a market, and whether a third party should be retained to administer the fund. Further procedural steps will be set after the comments are reviewed.

Acting NTIA Administrator Meredith Baker will ask Congress to authorize up to $7 million “for flexibility” to send extra converter coupons paid for with money reclaimed from expired vouchers, when she testifies Tuesday to the House Telecom Subcommittee, an NTIA spokesman said late Friday. NTIA will seek authority to use money already appropriated to the agency for other programs under the DTV Transition and Public Safety Act, he said. NTIA expects to release any day final rules extending coupon eligibility to nursing-home residents and households getting mail at post-office boxes, he said. The funding authorization that NTIA seeks is “virtually identical to flexibility Congress recently gave NTIA to use available balances from low-power conversion program for DTV consumer education,” he said. “Any unused funds will be returned to the Treasury, and under no circumstance will the coupon program spend more than the $1.5 billion” allocated by law, he said. The subcommittee Friday released a witness list for the Tuesday hearing: FCC Chairman Kevin Martin; NTIA Acting Administrator Meredith Baker; Mark Goldstein, director, physical infrastructure issues, Government Accountability Office; Tom Romeo, director, global federal services, IBM; NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow; Chris Murray, senior counsel, Consumers Union; Andrew Setos, engineering president, Fox Group; John Kittleman, general manager KRGV-TV News Channel 5 and KRGV-DT 5.2 LATV; David Candelaria, vice president, Entravision Communications; NAB President David Rehr; Christopher McLean, executive director, Consumer Electronic Retailers Coalition; and Connie Book, associate professor, Elon University School of Communications.

The FCC wants comment on how to strengthen Universal Service Fund management, administration and oversight, it said in a notice of inquiry. The FCC also seeks input on how to “define more clearly the goals of the USF,” new ways to gauge performance and whether to write new rules on document retention and enforcement. The notice, adopted Aug. 15 and released Friday, was to be voted on at the Aug. 22 FCC meeting but commissioners voted early, 5- 0. The agency hopes to build on results of a 2007 Inspector General audit, it said. The FCC already has moved to strengthen oversight, but is “concerned about the error rates the Inspector General identified,” it said. Among other goals, the FCC wants to prevent improper USF payments and fight waste, fraud and abuse, the agency said. “To ensure continued success, we must remain committed to monitoring, auditing, reviewing and reinforcing this program,” Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said. “Part of that process is being responsive to criticisms of the Commission’s management.” The NOI is “quite timely, if not overdue,” said Commissioner Michael Copps.

The FCC seems to be setting up intercarrier compensation and Universal Service Fund overhaul proposals for its Nov. 4 meeting. Whether Chairman Kevin Martin will propose a complete overhaul there was still fluid, sources said. A court order gave the commission until Nov. 5 to explain the statutory basis for its ISP-bound traffic compensation regime. Industry officials said the Wireline Bureau is soliciting comments on several comprehensive proposals.

Carriers must contribute 11.4 percent of their long distance revenue to the Universal Service Fund in Q4 2008, the FCC said Friday. That was same as the Q3 levy. To set the carrier “contribution factor,” the agency divides projected carrier revenue by expected USF subsidies for a given quarter. Of an estimated $1.97 billion in Q4 subsidies, about $1.18 billion is for the rural high-cost program, $528.56 million for the E-rate program, $208.04 million for low-income support and $49.87 million for the rural health-care program.

Acting NTIA Administrator Meredith Baker will ask Congress to authorize up to $7 million “for flexibility” to send extra converter coupons funded by money reclaimed from expired vouchers in testifying Tuesday before the House Telecom Subcommittee, an NTIA spokesman said late Friday. NTIA will seek authority to use money already appropriated to the agency for other programs under the DTV Transition and Public Safety Act, he said. The funding authorization NTIA seeks is “virtually identical to flexibility Congress recently gave NTIA to use available balances from low-power conversion program for DTV consumer education,” he said. “Any unused funds will be returned to the Treasury, and under no circumstance will the coupon program spend more than the $1.5 billion” allocated by law, he said. NTIA expects any day to release final rules extending coupon eligibility to nursing home residents and households getting mail at post office boxes, he said. Besides Baker, witnesses at the hearing will include FCC Chairman Kevin Martin; Mark Goldstein, director, physical infrastructure issues, Government Accountability Office; Tom Romeo, director, global federal services, IBM; NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow; Chris Murray, senior counsel, Consumers Union; Andrew Setos, engineering president, Fox Group; John Kittleman, general manager KRGV-TV News Channel 5 and KRGV-DT 5.2 LATV; David Candelaria, vice president, Entravision Communications; NAB President David Rehr; Christopher McLean, executive director, CE Retailers Coalition; and Connie Book, associate professor, Elon University School of Communications.

SAN FRANCISCO -- State policymakers mainly turned a cold shoulder to industry pleas for tax breaks in a discussion at last week’s CTIA conference. The wireless industry can keep saying “till you're blue in the face” that mobile service is overtaxed nationwide, but policymakers won’t budge, said Daryl Bassett, a Republican member of the Arkansas Public Service Commission.

AT&T and Verizon pushed for numbers-based Universal Service Fund contribution, in a meeting Wednesday with the Wireline Bureau, according to an ex parte. They filed a joint plan detailing how a numbers regime would work. A numbers scheme would base USF contribution on the quantity of phone numbers the carrier owns. Currently, the FCC collects USF based on interstate revenue. AT&T and Verizon’s proposal “will benefit consumers, stabilize the universal service contribution base, and significantly reduce the administrative cost and complexity of [USF] contribution for the FCC,” Universal Service Administrative Co. and contributors, the carriers said.