Contribution Reform Can Wait, Levin Says in USF Debate
The FCC made the right decision by putting off a fight over contribution reform to focus on reforming the high-cost Universal Service Fund distribution system, said National Broadband Plan architect Blair Levin. There are “too many moving parts” in the debate over contribution factor, so the commission focused on “low-hanging fruit” in its recent rulemaking notice, Levin said on a panel Wednesday sponsored by the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee. He was having an exchange with fellow panelist National Telecommunications Cooperative Association CEO Shirley Bloomfield. She said she “would have liked to see the FCC wrestle with contribution.” NTCA members are seeing up to 10 percent of their bandwidth gobbled by companies like Netflix and the situation is critical, she said.
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"That’s a recipe for stalemate,” said Levin, now at the Aspen Institute, in response. “And it doesn’t solve the ultimate problem.” What’s needed is for commissioners to focus on specific goals -- and specific costs, he said. USF and intercarrier compensation reform “will happen if people understand that it has to happen,” Levin said. On that point, Levin said, he was “a little more optimistic a year ago” because he doesn’t see anyone who “wanted to do the math. They all wanted to do the poetry."
Disappointing as it may be that the FCC hasn’t focused on contribution yet, the commission will probably move to a rulemaking notice on contribution by the summer, AT&T Vice President Joel Lubin said. “It’s got to get addressed.” In the meantime, “we cannot let this opportunity” to fix high-cost USF and intercarrier compensation slip away, Lubin said. “It’s such a critical issue for the country.” The broadband plan’s goal of deploying broadband at download/upload speeds of 4 Mbps/1 Mbps will probably “cost too much,” but Lubin said he was glad to see the commission set lofty goals. It’s now incumbent on industry to crunch the numbers and convince the FCC of the best way to proceed, he said. “What you need here, in my humble opinion, is the checks and balances of industry debate.” Bloomfield said she doubted anyone “is going to throw out a magic number.”
The easiest way forward is for the commission to subsidize some fiber to anchor institutions but focus mostly on wireless broadband, said Consumer Federation of America Research Director Mark Cooper. That will require the regulator to liberate Americans from “crappy” spectrum they're using on wireless networks, he said. CenturyLink Vice President John Jones said such “a mandate … sells America short.” Millions of homes want and need fixed wireline -- in fact, his company loses most of its customers to cable, not to wireless competitors, Jones said. “Even farmers have man-caves.”