FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly is open to contribution overhaul to support the USF but doesn't support adding a usage fee for broadband services, he said Tuesday in conversation with former Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth. Adding a fee to broadband could tip the price of the service beyond the reach of some consumers, O'Rielly said. "Raising the cost could change adoption rates. It does matter." O'Rielly spoke about capping universal broadband funds at the Hudson Institute, where Furchtgott-Roth is director of Center for the Economics of the Internet. The FCC is taking comment through July 15 on an NPRM that would set a universal budget cap for the USF program and a joint subcap for the E-rate and rural healthcare programs. The lack of contribution change isn't due to lack of interest among industry and other stakeholders, O'Rielly said. Some state commissioners want to put a fee on broadband, but there hasn't been a meeting of the minds between the FCC and the states. O'Rielly remains opposed to that and is challenged to find new answers. "Please come to us" with new ideas, he told telecom executives Tuesday. He's open to debating fees for services that are "telecom-like," he told us, such as for conference calling. Perhaps unlike other commissioners in his party, O'Rielly said, he doesn't want to shrink the Lifeline program, but said it's necessary to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse to protect it.

FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly is open to contribution overhaul to support the USF but doesn't support adding a usage fee for broadband services, he said Tuesday in conversation with former Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth. Adding a fee to broadband could tip the price of the service beyond the reach of some consumers, O'Rielly said. "Raising the cost could change adoption rates. It does matter." O'Rielly spoke about capping universal broadband funds at the Hudson Institute where Furchtgott-Roth is director of Center for the Economics of the Internet.

NTCA said models used to develop buildout obligations for high-cost universal service funds often render counts of locations that don't resemble “facts on the ground” in rural areas, talking with an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. That gap is particularly pronounced when measured on a more granular basis for compliance with deployment duties under the Connect America Fund Phase II auction and the alternative cost America model, it said. NTCA said that mismatch could turn providers off from ACAM support. It said the agency should do a "forensic investigation" into the models and direct Universal Service Administrative Co. to give a more reasonable interpretation of what's a home-based business. The group said for improved broadband mapping, there needs to be more detailed standardization of availability reporting requirements upfront, including a definition of assumed network capabilities and propagation characteristics. Without those details, more granular reporting would still be of marginal value when establishing more accurate maps, it said. There's need for a validation and challenge process to ensure accuracy, it said, per a docket 10-90 posting Thursday.

NTCA said models used to develop buildout obligations for high-cost universal service funds often render counts of locations that don't resemble “facts on the ground” in rural areas, talking with an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. That gap is particularly pronounced when measured on a more granular basis for compliance with deployment duties under the Connect America Fund Phase II auction and the alternative cost America model, it said. NTCA said that mismatch could turn providers off from ACAM support. It said the agency should do a "forensic investigation" into the models and direct Universal Service Administrative Co. to give a more reasonable interpretation of what's a home-based business. The group said for improved broadband mapping, there needs to be more detailed standardization of availability reporting requirements upfront, including a definition of assumed network capabilities and propagation characteristics. Without those details, more granular reporting would still be of marginal value when establishing more accurate maps, it said. There's need for a validation and challenge process to ensure accuracy, it said, per a docket 10-90 posting Thursday.

Kentucky Lifeline subscribers may be decreasing partly due to the FCC and Universal Service Administrative Co.’s Lifeline national verifier rollout, said a group of RLECs and CLECs. They commented Wednesday in docket 2016-00059 at the Kentucky Public Service Commission about possible changes to state Lifeline support. Kentucky should expand state Lifeline support to include mobile service, revisiting a 2017 decision to limit it to landline carriers with declining enrollments, wireless companies said.

Six rural carriers are asking the FCC for a one-time waiver of penalties for their failure to report geocodes and other location information into Universal Service Administrative Co.'s high-cost universal broadband (HUBB) portal (see 1803010040). Each rural LEC is subject to thousands of dollars in Connect America Fund penalties for missing a deadline to certify they had no locations to report for the first HUBB deadline of March 1, 2018, they said. The petition posted Tuesday in docket 14-58 said the affected RLECs "acted in good faith" and found the requirement to certify even when there were no locations to report "was not explicitly clear." The companies said restoring the USF dollars will serve the public interest because they use the funds to deploy broadband and voice in unserved rural areas. Losing the USF money "was a drastic adjustment" for each of the carriers, "and in some cases the results will directly and negatively impact the rural communities" they serve and could delay network upgrades or deployment of new broadband infrastructure.

Six rural carriers are asking the FCC for a one-time waiver of penalties for their failure to report geocodes and other location information into Universal Service Administrative Co.'s high-cost universal broadband (HUBB) portal (see 1803010040). Each rural LEC is subject to thousands of dollars in Connect America Fund penalties for missing a deadline to certify they had no locations to report for the first HUBB deadline of March 1, 2018, they said. The petition posted Tuesday in docket 14-58 said the affected RLECs "acted in good faith" and found the requirement to certify even when there were no locations to report "was not explicitly clear." The companies said restoring the USF dollars will serve the public interest because they use the funds to deploy broadband and voice in unserved rural areas. Losing the USF money "was a drastic adjustment" for each of the carriers, "and in some cases the results will directly and negatively impact the rural communities" they serve and could delay network upgrades or deployment of new broadband infrastructure.

An FCC proposal to cap the USF was opposed by more than 60 advocacy groups. The FCC released an NPRM last month calling for Universal Service Administrative Co. to set an annual budget cap atop the overall USF program (see 1905310069). Among groups opposing the proposal Tuesday are the American Library Association, MediaJustice, NAACP, National Digital Inclusion Alliance, National Tribal Telecommunications Association, NTCA, Rural Wireless Association, Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, Urban Libraries Council, and WTA. The groups said the FCC should "evaluate and size each program to suit its unique and essential universal service mission." Imposing an overarching cap on the program, they said, would "undermine efforts to ensure that funding for each program is and will remain 'sufficient' to satisfy Congress' mandates for universal service for all." The comments echo early opposition to the proposal (see 1906030059). The agency didn't comment.

An FCC proposal to cap the USF was opposed by more than 60 advocacy groups. The FCC released an NPRM last month calling for Universal Service Administrative Co. to set an annual budget cap atop the overall USF program (see 1905310069). Among groups opposing the proposal Tuesday are the American Library Association, MediaJustice, NAACP, National Digital Inclusion Alliance, National Tribal Telecommunications Association, NTCA, Rural Wireless Association, Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, Urban Libraries Council, and WTA. The groups said the FCC should "evaluate and size each program to suit its unique and essential universal service mission." Imposing an overarching cap on the program, they said, would "undermine efforts to ensure that funding for each program is and will remain 'sufficient' to satisfy Congress' mandates for universal service for all." The comments echo early opposition to the proposal (see 1906030059). The agency didn't comment.

The FCC directed Universal Service Administrative Co. to carry forward the $83.22 million in unused funds from its 2018 USF Rural Health Care program funding year and redirect it for use in 2019, said a Wireline Bureau public notice on docket 02-60 Monday. Last summer, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai asked for a 43 percent increase in the RHC program to account for inflation since its inception (see 1806060057). The 2019 funding cap for funding year 2019 is $594 million. The FCC released an NPRM last month on whether to set an overall budget cap for all USF programs, and to impose a joint cap for E-rate and RHC (see 1905310069).