Expressing frustration at the FCC’s pace of developing solutions to problems facing the universal service program, Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chmn. Burns (R- Mont.) said he would like to see a summit involving members of Congress, the FCC and the Federal-State Board on Universal Service. “This horse [the FCC] isn’t going to run any faster unless we put the spurs on,” Burns told reporters after a hearing Wed. on universal service. He said such a summit would help members determine whether legislation was needed in any areas and, if so, whether Congress could begin work on a bill this year.

The organization that administers the E-rate program -- the Schools & Libraries Div. of the Universal Service Administrative Co. -- has formed a task force to combat potential fraud and waste in the effort. The Task Force on the Prevention of Waste, Fraud & Abuse will look for areas where improvements can be made and recommend changes in a report due in early summer. The program has been criticized for lack of controls and potential abuse. The task force will have 14 members representing applicants and service providers. It will look at each area of operation such as the application process, application review, funding determinations, invoicing.

USTA announced a 5-part universal service platform Thurs. that it said was the result of several months of discussions among board members who represented various-sized companies. USTA Pres. Walter McCormick said USTA would use the 5 “principles” as a basis for lobbying for reform on Capitol Hill and at the FCC.

FCC legal advisers said Wed. they were aware of concerns by rural ILECs that universal service money was shrinking while requests for it were growing with the arrival of competitive carriers in rural areas. But they also told members of the National Telecom Co-op Assn. (NTCA) that those were very difficult problems to solve because the Telecom Act encouraged competition as well as universal service. The advisers told NTCA that numerous universal service issues were teed up at the Commission, including what services should be funded and how the support money should be raised, and they wouldn’t be easy to solve. NTCA members were in town for their annual Legislative & Policy Conference.

State regulators are eyeing wireless best practices as a potential way to avert the need for service quality regulation, at the same time as industry is drafting voluntary guidelines, officials said. Neb. PSC Comr. Anne Boyle told us she had circulated proposed best practices at last month’s National Assn. of Regulatory Utility Comrs. (NARUC) winter meeting for review. Boyle said the issue was teed up for an upcoming NARUC meeting in Denver, with hopes that industry, FCC and the National Assn. of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) would participate, she said. Meanwhile, the Mo. attorney general is in negotiations with Sprint PCS and Nextel on a lawsuit filed in Dec. over billing practices.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) told the National Telecom Coop Assn. (NTCA) Tues. he didn’t believe the FCC had the legal authority to assess universal service fees on cable modem and satellite Internet providers. Stevens said the Universal Service Fund (USF) eventually could become insolvent unless more funds were put in the system or unless spending became more targeted. “The end of this fund is coming unless we find a way to get funds into it,” Stevens said: “Long distance is the primary contributor to the fund. It’s also the industry that’s in the most trouble.”

The Wash. Supreme Court upheld a decision by state regulators that enabled a competitive telecom company to collect universal service support to help it compete in rural ILECs’ service areas. The court said the Wash. Utilities & Transportation Commission (WUTC) had not acted unreasonably when it designated the U.S. Cellular Corp. (USCC) as an eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) in rural ILEC territories. The WUTC’s decision was appealed by the Wash. Independent Telephone Assn. (WITA), which said the regulatory body should have held a “full adjudicative hearing” because rural ILECs “had a property interest in their designation as sole telecommunications providers” in their service areas. The state court concluded the ILECs hadn’t established “that they had a constitutionally protected property interest” and thus weren’t entitled to such a hearing. It also agreed with a lower court that WITA hadn’t shown that the WUTC had acted arbitrarily, another WITA argument. The WUTC originally gave ETC status to USCC in 1997 for areas where rural ILECs didn’t operate. USCC in 1999 asked the WUTC to expand the ETC designation to include all parts of its service area, including those served by rural ILECs. After the WUTC approved the petition in Dec. 1999, WITA sought dismissal, arguing that USCC hadn’t provided the required level of service to receive universal service funding and the action wasn’t in the public interest. The case was appealed to the state supreme court after 2 lower courts affirmed the WUTC’s action. The Supreme Court said WITA members’ argument that they had a right to be sole ETCs in their service areas was “unsupportable.” It also held that USCC did provide the services required of ETCs and concluded that WUTC had “recognized the 1996’s Act’s interrelated goals of fostering competition and advancing universal service” when it granted the ETC status. The court’s opinion was issued March 20 (Doc. 72428-8).

FCC Chmn. Powell has delayed action on a proposal to reclassify wireline broadband Internet access because the agency doesn’t want to overload staff resources at both the Wireline Bureau and commissioners’ offices, an FCC official confirmed Thurs. when questioned about it. The agency originally planned to act on the broadband proposal next month but now isn’t scheduled to act until June or later. A “specific time frame hasn’t been decided” yet, the staff member said. Some broadband deregulation already occurred in the UNE order so it’s less imperative that the agency act quickly now, he said. In addition, the media ownership proceeding will heavily tax the resources of commissioners’ staff so it may be difficult for the agency to handle the broadband proceeding at the same time, the staff member said. The Wireline Bureau is a bit worn out from the UNE proceeding and several Sec. 271 applications still are being processed, he said. However, a lobbyist said the delay also appeared to be rooted in concern by Powell that the broadband proposal wouldn’t win a majority vote. Having just experienced such an outcome in the UNE proceeding, Powell doesn’t want to risk a similar experience, the source said. The Wireline Bureau reportedly had completed a draft of the order before Powell decided to delay action, leading some to think more than resources were at issue in the delay. Among other things, the delay continues uncertainty whether cable modem service should contribute to the Universal Service Fund (USF). When the FCC adopted an interim reform of USF contributions methodology in Dec., it decided to set the cable modem issue aside and deal with it in the wireline broadband proceeding. Next on the agenda for wireline action are performance measurements and the universal service contributions methodology, sources said.

NEW ORLEANS -- FCC Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Dane Snowden encouraged the wireless industry to continue working with state officials and others on voluntary best practices guidelines as part of a process the Commission began coordinating a year ago. Dialog between groups such as NARUC and CTIA is “the best way to solve problems in a nonregulatory manner,” Snowden said on a bureau chiefs panel at the CTIA Wireless 2003 show here.

S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford (R) signed a bill to deregulate broadband telecom service in the state. The new law (HB- 3344) prohibits the S.C. PSC from imposing any regulation on broadband services or providers. It allows the PSC to continue oversight of mixed facilities that are used for both narrowband and broadband services and requires that revenue from broadband services continue to count when calculating a telecom provider’s universal service fund contributions. Supporters said the new law would give all broadband providers a level playing field and would encourage broadband service investment. But CLEC interests predicted it would lead to higher prices and drive would competition out of the market for high-speed Internet access. This is the first of several bills for sweeping broadband deregulation pending around the country to make it into law this year.