Stockdale Says FCC to Look At Supporting Broadband Through USF
LAKE GRAPEVINE, Texas -- The FCC will consider whether it can support broadband directly through the Universal Service Fund without reclassification, Deputy Wireline Bureau Chief Don Stockdale told the CompTel convention Monday. He said some have filed comments mentioning that there’s already direct broadband support for schools and libraries. Others have pointed to a November 2008 rulemaking that required companies to agree to build-out requirements in exchange for high-cost subsidy. “This is an issue clearly the commission will be asking about,” Stockdale said. He spoke at two sessions at the CompTel conference. In the first, Stockdale discussed inter-carrier compensation and in the second, USF overhaul under the National Broadband Plan.
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Many who posed questions to Stockdale expressed impatience with the FCC. In the second session, Nancy Lubamersky, vice president of strategic initiatives and public policy at TelePacific, told Stockdale her company’s outside counsel budget had already been spent in the continuing deliberations. “It makes me mad because it’s a good idea, but I can’t afford to play any more,” Lubamersky told Stockdale after the session wrapped up. “I'm sorry to hear that,” he said.
Arent Fox lawyer John Canis asked Stockdale to explain why the FCC is handling ILEC-CLEC battles case by case instead of dealing with the conflicts as a whole. “This has been one of the most lawless periods I've ever seen,” he said at the first session. “It’s just crazy out here. Is there something the FCC can do beside promising some kind of rulemaking proceedings -- that can give some kind of guidance?"
Stockdale said Canis had made “an eloquent case” for change. “It’s one of the reasons we hope we can start getting stakeholders engaged,” he said. After the session wrapped up, Canis said he was disappointed but not surprised by Stockdale’s response. “There’s no answers,” Canis said after asking Stockdale why his agency seemed reluctant to deal with the “chaos” of litigation among CLECs and ILECs. “They're afraid to make a decision.”
The commission “has gone back to a 1995 mentality,” in which the goal is to preserve ILECs, said Brett Mingo, co-owner of CLEC CoreTel. He once successfully brought a mandamus action against the FCC.
Stockdale said he couldn’t predict where the commission is headed but is sure that a revamp can be done without “blowing up the fund.” There’s “uncertainty” over whether market-based mechanisms like reverse auctions can work, he said. He urged his audience to “try and make your views known” as the FCC works on a rulemaking notice this fall and winter.
Stockdale is wasn’t sure he was seeing “impatience” in the audience, he said after the second panel. “I'm not sure that I agree with the word, ‘impatience,'” he said. “I think that a number of the views expressed by people in the audience reflect their view that these are serious problems that need to be addressed.”