Genachowski Demands ‘More from Stakeholders’ on USF, Intercarrier Comp Reforms
OMAHA, Neb. -- Industry and public interest advocates have yet to devise a comprehensive proposal addressing all the problems of the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said at a commission roundtable. “We want to see more from stakeholders in this program, and we want to see it quickly.” The chairman led a public forum on the pending overhaul late Wednesday at the University of Nebraska at Omaha to close a day-long set of discussions. He reiterated the four corners of his reform program: Moving to a broadband fund and phasing down intercarrier comp rates, (including intrastate revenues); “controlling costs and constraining the size of the fund;” “demanding accountability;” and “market-driven and incentive-based policies to maximize the impact of scarce program resources.”
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"Although we've gotten considerable input already, we haven’t yet seen serious stakeholder proposals in the record that are fully consistent with these principles,” Genachowski said. Earlier in the day, Genachowski toured a beef-packing plant that had expanded largely because of broadband. Genachowski then toured a semi-rural area that lacks broadband. “It’s time to get the Universal Service Fund under control,” he said. “It’s not a question of if we should reform it, but how we should reform it.” USTelecom is leading talks that are trying to come up with an industry-wide set of reform proposals (CD April 5 p4).
So far, no one has come up with a comprehensive plan, Genachowski said. “It’s really about solving a Rubik’s cube,” he told us. The most divisive question among industry is how long a transition to give to the proposed changes. Genachowski said he hasn’t focused on a transition timetable, reiterating his promise not to make “flash cuts.” USF vouchers are “an interesting idea” that “we've been looking at,” but his staff thought there were probably too many “questions … that will be hard to overcome,” Genachowski told the FCC forum. “Some of the questions that have come up as we've considered that option is, is it really a way to aggregate demand locally? How would one pick the amount for the vouchers?"
Wednesday’s marathon session was the third in a series of workshops on reforming universal service and intercarrier compensation. It was the first outside of Washington. Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., said in an interview Wednesday he considered the FCC visit a success. Genachowski said his team chose Nebraska because “there’s no greater champion of USF than Congressman Terry” and also because there’s “no better illustration of why broadband is important, and no better demonstration of the need to fix USF than Nebraska.” Most of the state’s citizens live in or around Omaha, and its rural population is declining, said Nebraska regulator Anne Boyle. The state has set up its own USF worth about $50 million a year. But, up to 83 percent of Nebraska’s citizens are without broadband, Commissioner Michael Copps said Wednesday.