The FCC is on track to complete part of Universal Service Fund overhaul by late summer, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said Tuesday during a taping of C-SPAN’s The Communicators, scheduled to air over the weekend. Clyburn also said she has not prejudged AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile, a deal on which the companies are expected to formally seek commission approval in filings Thursday.
With less than four months to go before an FCC-promised deadline for Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime reforms, industry appears to be divided on how to fix the system. The American Cable Association, for instance, said its “diverse and interested membership” meant the association “has had to navigate and balance strongly competing interests, while ensuring any policy proposals are in the public interest.” The FCC’s proposed rewrites at least “provide a good starting point to bring broadband to unserved areas, and, through refinements and targeted rebalancing, there is the potential to adopt reforms this year to reorient the High-Cost fund to improve efficiency and achieve universal broadband service,” ACA said in its comments. All comments were posted to dockets 10-90, 09-51, 07-135, 05-337, 01-92, 96-45 and 03-109.
Better data and accuracy is needed as the National Broadband Map continues to evolve, panelists said at a Broadband Breakfast Club briefing Tuesday. Better broadband data is key to national policies as well as support of ongoing broadband initiatives at the state and local level, they said.
There’s no evidence yet to suggest that blocking and throttling are threatening the open Internet, the European Commission said Tuesday in a statement on net neutrality to the European Parliament and Council. However, if further investigation uncovers “significant and persistent” problems, the EC won’t rule out legislative fixes, it said. The “wait and see” approach appeared to sit well with industry sectors, but digital advocacy and consumer groups strongly criticized it.
The FCC should “immediately” tackle phantom traffic and traffic pumping but should provide “careful transitions” as it reforms the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regimes with “great care,” USTelecom said in comments posted to dockets 10-90, 09-51, 07-135, 05-337, 01-92, 96-45 and 03-109. “Until targeted universal service support provides sufficient explicit funding for networks in high-cost areas, any mandated rate reductions must be coupled with a reasonable opportunity for providers to replace the revenues lost … through a combination of increased retail rate flexibility and a supplement fund,” USTelecom said. USTelecom is leading talks to try to come up with an industry-wide reform. But the commission has made clear that it wants to move to orders on USF and intercarrier comp distribution by the end of the summer. “Intercarrier compensation reform must be accomplished by providing opportunities for carriers to replace lost revenues in order to allow the continuation of support for networks, particularly those in high-cost rural areas,” USTelecom said in Monday’s comments.
The FCC would be allowed to do voluntary incentive auctions under a House bill introduced late Friday by Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio. The narrowly written bill (HR-1622), which would split proceeds between licensees and the U.S. Treasury, is the first incentive auction bill from a House Commerce Committee Republican. However, the committee is expected to have at least two more spectrum hearings before agreeing to any legislation. Industry lobbyists said budget talks are likely to determine the House’s pace.
FCC staff have been asking carriers a new round of questions about their billing procedures, according to recent ex parte filings at the FCC. That could mean the commission is getting closer on bill shock rules, sought by consumer and public interest groups but opposed by carriers, industry sources said Monday.
Replacing Commissioner Michael Copps may not be easy and may not happen until after he leaves the FCC at the end of the current Congress. The White House has vetted several candidates for the soon-to-be-open FCC seat held by Copps, industry and government officials confirm. Jessica Rosenworcel, aide to Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., appears to be the likely nominee (CD March 3 p5) and Rockefeller has asked the White House that she be nominated, officials said. The FBI may have already started the final critical background investigation on a single candidate, officials said.
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Unless the FCC does away with its net neutrality rules, Congress probably won’t give the FCC authority for incentive spectrum auctions to move TV broadcasters off their frequencies and let mobile broadband operators bid on them, said House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., after a field hearing on government impediments to job creation in the high-tech sector. “Until net neutrality is rolled back, I don’t believe Congress is going to be willing to give the FCC any new power,” Issa told reporters. The FCC got “administratively what it couldn’t get legislatively,” he said. An FCC spokesman declined to comment.
Telephone and Internet traffic data storage “has proved useful in criminal investigations” but the EU data retention directive needs reworking, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said Monday. A European Commission evaluation of how the measure is working found wide-ranging differences in how it’s adopted and used across the EU, which Malmström said she'd remedy in amendments, but also general agreement by governments that it’s helping guard against serious crime. But civil rights advocates flayed the EC for recognizing the law’s failings but refusing to find a less privacy-invasive alternative.