Kansas, Nebraska Drop Retroactivity Request in USF Battle
Regulators in Kansas and Nebraska amended a request to make retroactive their powers to assess nomadic voice over Internet providers for state universal service funds. This all but clears the way for a declaratory FCC ruling that states can make their own USF assessments, and an order could be coming within weeks, agency officials said.
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"We've asked that it be quickly because … there’s a lot of uncertainty” over state funds, said telecom lawyer Elisabeth Ross, of Birch Horton, who helped draft the states’ amended petition. That doesn’t mean the controversy will die down. “We haven’t actually dropped retroactivity,” Ross said. “We're just handling it internally.” She declined to elaborate if that meant that Kansas and Nebraska would try to impose their own retroactive assessments.
The VON Coalition’s opposition to Kansas’ and Nebraska’s petition remains solid, said Glenn Richards of the coalition. “We appreciate that Kansas and Nebraska recognize the problems with retroactivity,” he said. “However, we still oppose the petition and believe that this important issue is better handled through a rulemaking."
FCC officials let Kansas and Nebraska representatives know their petition would have an easier time if they dropped retroactivity, agency officials said. There have been many meetings over the Kansas and Nebraska petition in recent weeks. At least two drafts of an order have already circulated -- but that was before Kansas and Nebraska amended the petition, a commission official said. There remains the question of how states can assess nomadic VOIP for USF, an FCC official said: Some have sought to base the assessment on subscribers’ main address, while others have argued to assess based on the billing address.