Rural Task Force (RTF) proposal to reform universal service is expected to be on FCC agenda at open meeting May 10, USTA officials and other sources said Wed. USTA Interim Pres. Gary Lytle said association is pleased with what it thinks FCC plans to do: (1) Approve RTF proposal with little change, meaning it will continue to base universal service support on embedded costs rather than Total Element Long-Run Incremental Cost (TELRIC). (2) Not combine RTF plan with one proposed by Multi-Assn. Group (MAG) that targets both universal service and access charges for reform. MAG group has urged FCC not to consider access charge reform as part of RTF. USTA is part of MAG group, which also includes National Telephone Co-op Assn, National Rural Telecom Assn., OPASTCO. In wide-ranging news briefing, Lytle said FCC was expected to approve “largely what the [Federal-State] Joint Board [on Universal Service] recommended.” Both plans are aimed at rural telephony. RTF proposal would increase size of universal service system for rural carriers and make funding portable.

Municipal govt. deployment of communications networks is catching attention of “high-ranking members” of Congress and USTA Interim Pres. Gary Lytle said he was “hopeful and confident” that legislation addressing govt. competition would be introduced in near future. More than 200 municipalities are competitive service providers, some of which have applied for universal service funding, he said Wed. in news briefing at USTA hq in Washington. Congressional leaders, whom he declined to identify, are interested in possible legislative remedy to unfair advantage some govt. providers may have over USTA members, Lytle said. Meanwhile, he expressed concern with move by House Judiciary Committee Chmn. Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) to get shot at review of broadband deregulatory bill recently introduced by House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) and ranking Democrat Dingell (Mich.). Sensenbrenner urged House Speaker Hastert (R-Ill.) Tues. to give Judiciary Committee partial jurisdiction over bill, since it could provide competitive advantage to Bell companies and therefore fell within committee oversight of antitrust issues. Lytle reiterated USTA’s support of Tauzin-Dingell bill and said group was “hopeful it will not be referred to the Judiciary Committee.” On other issues, Lytle said: (1) USTA “search committee” is close to decision on new pres. to replace Roy Neel. Lytle, head of Ameritech’s Washington office before its merger with SBC, said he was candidate but he had “no idea” who else was being interviewed or when decision would be made. (2) He expected Bells to gain Sec. 271 authority in 10-15 more states this year. (3) Assn. will play “active role” in FCC proceeding to standardize intercarrier compensation. “This is as big as it gets for our members.”

FCC proposed changing way it allocates e-rate funds when there isn’t enough money to support all requests for internal connections. Agency asked for comments on idea of giving priority to requests by schools and libraries that didn’t get funding in previous year. Commission said requests for telecom services still would get top priority. Change would apply to next step, known as Priority 2 -- requests for internal connections. FCC said demand for funding in year beginning July 1 was $5.2 billion, more than double $2.25 billion cap. Once requests for telecom service are fulfilled, there only $900 million will be left for Priority 2 internal connections. Under current rules, neediest schools and libraries -- those eligible for 90% discounts -- will get first crack at remaining funds. However, those institutions alone seek more than $900 million available, FCC said. That means agency can ask for comment on 2 options: (1) Give out remaining $900 million to all 90% institutions on pro rata basis, meaning each would get only portion of amount requested. That could mean applicants “might not receive sufficient funding to permit completion of a useful system of internal connections,” Commission said. (2) Give funding priority to those that didn’t receive funding in past year. Institutions would be funded in order of their discount level. FCC said that would ease its concern “that applicants eligible for 90% discounts could receive funding… for 2 years in a row while other schools that are also economically disadvantaged, albeit not to the same degree, could receive no discounts at all.” E-rate funds offer discounts to schools and libraries that are installing telecom services or internal connections, with discounts on sliding scale, largest going to neediest institutions.

Speakers for upcoming lunches of Federal Communications Bar Assn. in Washington: May 11 -- House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.), Hyatt Hotel; June 21 -- FCC Chmn. Powell, Capitol Hilton, during which Margaret Tobey of Morrison & Foerster is to succeed Anne Swanson of Dow, Lohnes & Albertson as FCBA pres.

Large group of small cable operators descended upon Congress Wed., pushing for various broadband deployment bills now under consideration to aid cable as much as telecom. About 50 members of American Cable Assn. (ACA), which represents 900 smaller MSOs, spent day on Capitol Hill, hoping to sway lawmakers to put technology-neutral provisions into any measures they passed. They argued that without such provisions, legislators would be favoring phone companies over cable operators even though they said latter had done better job of extending broadband services to rural and poor areas. “In smaller markets, regulatory restraint is working,” ACA said in position paper, contending that current balance shouldn’t be upset.

Nondiscriminatory access to multitenant dwellings by communications service providers was viewed as commonly shared impediment to competition Wed. at Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee hearing. Although witnesses offered divergent perspectives on extent of competition stemming from 1996 Telecom Act, incumbent, competitive and interexchange carriers all chimed in that restrictive landlord policies had stymied their market expansion efforts.

Boeing, Skybridge, Teledesic and Virtual GEO are expected to receive conditional licenses from FCC to operate nongeostationary systems in Ku-band pending final resolution of issues involving sharing with incumbent geostationary system, industry sources told us: “It was supposed to be out last Thursday or Friday, but we expect FCC to issue the order this week,” industry lawyer said. Conditional licenses are expected to allow companies such as Skybridge, which has been unable to attract investors, to move forward with financing plans while waiting for final ruling from FCC. However, attorney for one of applicants receiving conditional licenses called rulemaking “ridiculous and absurd.” He said conditional licenses was “worthless document,” saying it and $1.25 will “get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.” Ruling could be issued as early as today (Thurs.) source said.

Space Data International (SDI) received FCC authorization Wed. to operate on time-share basis 4 NASA Tracking & Data Relay satellites. SDI wants to provide services to seismic exploration vessels surveying ocean floor. It said it believed technology would facilitate development of new oil and gas resources. Survey vessels locate oil and gas deposits by taking soundings of surveyed areas, recording soundings on computer storage tapes and transporting tapes to land-based data processing centers by ship. Process can take 6 weeks to several months. SDI proposes to transmit information to data processing center by satellite. SDI estimated service would reduce cost of each individual survey up to $4.1 million. Plans call for SDI to place earth station on each survey vessel, with survey data transmitted via TDRSS satellite to NASA’s facility in White Sands, N.M., and then to data processing center in Houston by landlines. SDI said it must use TDRSS satellites to provide service because commercial satellite systems didn’t have technical capabilities, geographic coverage or capacity necessary.

National Exchange Carrier Assn. (NECA) gave FCC data on how much money is needed to support Telecom Relay Services (TRS) Fund in year starting July 1. NECA said $70.3 million would be needed, but since there was $11 million balance from this year, actual requirement was $59.4 million. TRS Fund is paid through contributions from telecom providers based on percentage of their interstate and international revenues. NECA also proposed reimbursement amounts for carriers that handle TRS calls: $1.309 per interstate min. for traditional TRS, $2.62 per interstate min. for Speech-to-Speech service, $7.449 for Video Relay Service. Providers are reimbursed separately for intrastate calls. NECA filing also included funding for nationwide campaign to educate public on using 711 to access TRS.

Following meeting last month on interference issues, satellite digital audio radio service (SDARS) licensees and Wireless Communications Services (WCS) operators don’t appear to be closer to agreement on terrestrial repeaters. In recent ex parte filings at FCC, XM Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio proposed rules that would cap number of high-power repeaters that could be deployed without first coordinating with WCS licensees. WCS licensee AT&T Wireless (ATTW) offered counterproposal, providing technical analysis that carrier said would demonstrate why SDARS plan still would cause interference to fixed wireless operations. XM submitted draft rule to FCC for terrestrial repeaters in effort to rebut concerns that repeaters operating at levels above 2 kw could cause interference. XM told FCC that AT&T Wireless “recently disclosed that its concerns with terrestrial repeaters are based on its having designed the front end of its receivers to tune to the entire 2305-2360 MHz band, covering both the WCS and the DARS band, and that it has no filtering to eliminate DARS transmissions in the 2320-2345 MHz band.” XM said it shouldn’t have to bear costs of AT&T’s “failure to adopt reasonable engineering practices.” Sirius raised similar arguments, saying WCS licensees should have used receivers with enough front-end selectivity to reject “the amount of interference that the rules already permit from nearby WCS operations.” XM proposed rule that would: (1) Put no additional limitations on low-power repeaters. (2) Define “medium-power” repeaters as operating between 2 and 10 kw. Such repeaters provide more targeted transmissions that increase power in given direction, using sectorized antennas and focus energy into relatively narrow beamwidth. Such antennas decrease probability that WCS base station would be located within that range. Every medium-power repeater would be coordinated with WCS licensees. (3) Limit to 250 number high-power repeaters, operating at 10-40 kw, that XM would operate without coordination. In Mon. ex parte filing, AT&T referred to meeting last month in which SDARS and WCS licensees exchanged technical data. SDARS licensees provided details on planned repeaters in Atlanta, Boston and San Francisco. AT&T said its interference analysis found: (1) If SDARS licensees operated terrestrial repeaters at levels of 10-13 kw each, “interference to the ATTWS fixed wireless base station would preclude the provision of service to more than 171,000 households in Atlanta alone.” (2) If SDARS licensees operated repeaters at 40 kw, interference to base station would preclude AT&T fixed wireless service to almost 435,000 households there. (3) If high-power repeaters were replaced with multiple standard power repeaters operating at 2 kw, SDARS licensees could “achieve the same coverage for their own service but reduce the size of the exclusion zone in Atlanta” by 43.2%. Carrier wrote: “Both sets of licensees paid for their spectrum at auction or in the secondary market. It is reasonable to expect that both services should bear the burden of establishing a viable co- existence.” AT&T urged FCC to adopt rule in which SDARS licensees could deploy terrestrial repeaters at peak power of up to 400 w/MHz, evenly distributed across band for total of 2 kw per 5 MHz. Proposal also would limit out-of-band emissions generated by SDARS terrestrial repeaters to levels specified by licensees that have less than transmitter power levels.