Rockefeller Presses FCC to Revamp USF
Revamping the Universal Service Fund should be an FCC priority, said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. In a letter Tuesday to the commissioners, he asked the agency to “proceed with urgency” to fix problems in rural communications infrastructure exposed by the recent mining disaster in his home state. Rockefeller didn’t mention comprehensive USF legislation introduced July 22 by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb. (CD July 26 p3).
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"The current system has missed the mark” and “shortchanged too many residents of communities in West Virginia and in rural areas across the country,” Rockefeller wrote. In his state, one in five has broadband and only 71 percent have access to 3G wireless, he said. The problems “have been magnified by a FCC system in which support is dependent on the size and regulatory classification of the carrier rather than the underlying characteristics of the area to which support is directed,” Rockefeller said. “A more sensible and efficient system … would focus less on the size of the carrier providing the service and more on providing support to those areas of the country that lack service today."
Rockefeller seems to be telling the FCC not to wait for legislation, acknowledging that it’s going to take a while, said Stifel Nicolaus analyst David Kaut. Concept Capital analyst Paul Gallant thinks “the letter certainly implies that the FCC, rather than Congress, is going to be the forum for the USF overhaul,” he said. “But of course Congress will still have a big say in what the final FCC rules look like.” The letter doesn’t mean that Rockefeller is against Congress leading the overhaul, said Potomac Research Group analyst Paul Glenchur. It’s more likely that Rockefeller is pushing the FCC because the dwindling congressional calendar makes it tough to move any legislation until next year, he said. The Senate leaves for a month-long recess at the end of this week, and the House left Friday. USF legislation probably won’t move before January, and Rockefeller has repeatedly said he believes there’s much the FCC can do right away, said a wireline industry official.
Only a handful of Senate offices seem to know about the Boucher bill, and the ones who do have been in “spectator mode,” said a wireline industry official. The Senate doesn’t seem to be working on USF legislation. A FCC spokeswoman declined to comment.
The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association has “no preference whether the reform gets done in Congress or at the FCC -- as long as it is done in a way that preserves a proven cost recovery structure and investment incentives,” said CEO Shirley Bloomfield. She praised Rockefeller for bringing attention to the issue. “The FCC must work to ensure that consumers in rural and hard-to-reach areas have access to communications services comparable to their urban counterparts,” said Rural Cellular Association President Steven Berry. “As the wireless industry begins deploying 4G services, support for wireless carriers in rural areas is even more important to ensure reasonably comparable services.”