VICTORY SEES UNIVERSAL SERVICE IMPLICATIONS FROM NEW TECHNOLOGY
BOCA RATON, Fla. -- NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory praised USTA Wed. for devoting sizeable part of its convention here this year to sessions looking at effect of broadband and other new technologies on universal service, which she said was critical issue. “Universal service is going to be stress tested” by broadband, IP telephony, WiFi, Victory said in speech on closing day of USTA’s convention. New ways of marketing also will have impact, such as bundling service offerings, which “blurs jurisdictional lines,” she said. Challenge is to “look ahead and anticipate” possible problems for universal service, Victory said. Numerous issues must be watched, such as “who contributes, how contributions are calibrated, who gets support and what they use it for,” she said, inviting USTA members and leaders to “share their thoughts” with NTIA.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Victory told group that Administration had some of same priorities as industry, with broadband deployment high on list. Asked after speech why President Bush hadn’t given more direction on broadband policy, she said Administration believed in teamwork and wasn’t going to overlap with FCC, which has responsibility for broadband policy. “In this Administration, we coordinate very well,” she said, and that’s why she has concentrated on other issues such as rights-of-way (ROW) problems. Other Administration priorities, Victory said, include: (1) “Corporate responsibility.” She told telecom executives “your actions are critical to the restoration of confidence.” (2) Easing uncertainties about effect of regulatory policies on competition, which FCC is addressing in several pending proceedings. (3) Improving access to public rights-of-way for tower siting and other purposes. She said ROW problem could be caused by small number of “bad actors” but it still could have significant effect on rollout of new services. ROW report is to be issued soon, perhaps by end of year, and Administration has formed federal ROW working group to act as model for state and local govts., she said. “We want to see the federal government lead by example.” Both sides have legitimate interests, she said later. Businesses are concerned about fees, processing time and information collection, while govts. are interested in making sure rights-of-way are maintained properly, she said.
Asked in impromptu news conference after speech for her views on govt. loans for telecom carriers, idea raised in panel discussion earlier in conference, she said her philosophy was to look at underlying business “atmosphere” to make sure it was conducive to economic development rather than using subsidies “to prop it up.” On another issue, she said “universal service is one of the toughest issues facing regulators long term.” While there’s “a lot of pressure on the FCC to solve the more immediate shortfall issues” in universal service, NTIA has “the luxury to take a longer term look” at such things as trends, Victory said. Asked about bankruptcies plaguing telecom industry, she said key was to “strike a balance” between protecting assets of bankrupt company while not disadvantaging others whose operations were interconnected. “In this industry, everything is interconnected, so their fate is all tied together,” unlike many other industries, Victory said. She said she favored action by bankruptcy courts to protect those competing interests rather than doing it through legislation.