Coalition of Rural Telephone Cos. asked FCC to reconsider part of new universal service rules that determine support for wireless carriers’ mobile, shared-spectrum applications. Coalition said rules, devised for rural telcos, would determine disbursements for wireless carriers based on “incongruent wireline concepts.” Rules base funding on customers’ fixed addresses and loop counts, which don’t work well for wireless environment, group said in July 5 petition for reconsideration: “The Commission should consider and adopt rules with respect to wireless applications that will not lead to gaming opportunities.” Coalition, which represents rural LECs in Kan., Minn. and Neb., said use of billing address “as a surrogate for the locations where mobile service is used lacks a valid conceptual framework.” It said billing address policy “will encourage arbitrary ‘customer location shopping’ by [wireless competitors] to game the system in a manner that undermines the policy basis for the provision of universal service support… in rural areas with high cost.” Rules also use long-time wireline concept of loop count for universal service support even though such counts aren’t defined for wireless, shared spectrum applications, coalition said. “The Commission has not proposed or examined what the equivalent measure should be for wireless applications.”

N.H. legislature passed bill to require state’s PUC to conduct study into whether N.H. needed state universal service fund (USF) and, if yes, to propose rules for implementation. Measure (HB-402) doesn’t create state fund but was passed to provide legislature with information to be used in considering any future bill to authorize state USF. Measure directs PUC to assume that all intrastate telecom providers, including wireless phone and paging companies, will contribute to fund, that fund must provide support for low-income customers and may support public interest payphones at needed but unprofitable locations. Bill directs PUC to estimate costs and suggest services to be included in state universal service entitlement. It doesn’t specify timetable for PUC to conduct USF study

FCC said Consumer/Disability Telecommunications Advisory Committee would meet Aug. 6, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., at Commission hq. Committee will make recommendations on universal service fund reforms and will consider USTA request to join. Meeting is open to public -- 202-418-2809.

National Exchange Carrier Assn. (NECA) filed new access tariff revisions with FCC “under protest” because they reflect end user charges to recover Universal Service Fund contributions, which NECA doesn’t support. NECA said it filed tariff Mon. to comply with FCC order but order didn’t grant NECA’s request to recover these contributions from long distance carriers, rather than end users, through explicit per-min. charge. New access charge tariffs include 1.9% increase for traffic sensitive switched access and 10.3% increase for composite carrier common line (CCL) rate. Traffic sensitive special access rates remained unchanged.

U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., sided with FCC twice Fri. in 2 separate rulings, backing regulations on pricing for traffic that travels between ILECs and paging companies and upholding unrelated order on formula for Universal Service Fund (USF). In first case, D.C. Circuit unanimously rejected petitions by LECs, including Qwest,, that sought to overturn agency’s interpretation of regulations that bar LEC from assessing charges on another carrier for local traffic that originates on LEC’s network. That case turned on Qwest challenge involving one-way paging company TSR Wireless, which Qwest had charged for dedicated transmission facilities needed to pass paging calls on to its customers. Court also struck down challenge by National Exchange Carrier Assn. (NECA) to FCC order on USF formula. It said NECA had failed to demonstrate Common Carrier Bureau decision to retain 1998 formula for calculating those payments was arbitrary and capricious.

FCC imposed $137,000 fine on PTT Telekom Fri. for failure to make contributions to universal service fund as required for all interstate telecommunications providers.

S.C. PSC ordered 50% reduction of intrastate access charges for all incumbent telcos, effective Oct. 1, to reflect establishment of state universal service fund that will make universal service subsidies explicit rather than implicit. Cut will reduce access charges to 3 cents per min. from 6 cents. Interexchange carriers must pass along their shares of the $38.4 million annual savings through lower rates. PSC (Doc. 97-239C) also ruled that wireless carriers were exempt from paying contributions into state USF because they didn’t compete against wireline telcos. Agency said state law authorizing USF defined participating telecom providers as incumbents and those that competed against incumbents. PSC said there was no evidence that any wireless carriers competed against any wireline telco in state, so they were exempt from USF assessments, but also couldn’t receive payments from fund. Payphone providers’ assessments will be based on their end-user revenues only, and not also payphone access line providers’ charges, PSC said.

Reflecting her background as FCC staffer and corporate lobbyist, new FCC Comr. Abernathy said one of her top priorities is to speed Commission’s decisionmaking and make its processes more “transparent” so public can better track issues. In interview with Communications Daily Fri., Abernathy said Commission’s delay in ruling on News Corp.’s proposed purchase of Chris-Craft Industries TV stations was one example of why she believed that changes ought to be made. “That’s [the delay is] unfortunate,” she said, noting that Chris-Craft license transfers have lingered at agency for 8 months. “I'd like it to move faster,” she said, while declining to say how Commission should rule on issue of local station concentration.

Addressing cost of deploying high-speed Internet access in rural areas should be primary concern of Congress, rather than focusing on bolstering competition in rural and underserved areas, rural carrier executive told joint House Small Business Committee panel Thurs. Testifying before Regulatory Reform & Oversight and Rural Enterprises subcommittees, Sully Buttes Telephone Co-op GM Randy Houdek cautioned against encouraging “competition for the mere sake of competition” in rural and “frontier” areas of states such as N.D. He instead suggested that Congress lift caps on how much high-cost support individual carriers could receive through universal service program. He also urged members to seek full support for Rural Utilities Service (RUS) Telecommunications program, which he said had enabled rural ILECs to “serve areas that are viewed as economically unattractive by the industry’s largest carriers.”

Legislation that would increase FCC enforcement authority might be tweaked to reflect concerns that proposed changes might not be sufficient to deter potential violators of telecom law, House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.) said Thurs. at hearing on HR-1765. “We need to give [FCC] Chmn. Powell and his colleagues more ammo so that they can enforce the law,” he said. Upton bill would increase fines FCC could levy on violators to $1 million per violation, with $10 million cap, from current $120,000 limit. It also would extend statute of limitations on enforcement action to 2 years from one. Upton said he would assess recommendations of panelists testifying at hearing, who offered variety of suggestions on how to improve effectiveness of bill.