Close of USF Comment Period Opens Lobbying Period
The FCC’s comment period has closed and industry officials are pressing their cases for Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime updates at venues from the Hill to the commission. Talks continue, with the hope of reaching an industry-wide consensus, but each sector has already begun pressing cases in ex parte meetings and Hill visits. Rural telcos have been dropping letters off on the Hill, asking legislators to urge FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski “strongly” to “consider the proposals put forward by the rural associations (OPASTCO, WTA, NTCA and NECA).” OPASTCO Vice President Randy Tyree said he hopes Congress will “weigh in and let the FCC know the importance of rural cooperatives that are out there serving and doing a good job.”
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Genachowski and the other commissioners have said they want to move to orders on universal service and intercarrier comp by the end of the summer, but the chairman has also urged industry to offer suggestions of its own (CD May 20 p1). Comments and replies in the just-completed record indicate industry is divided over questions such as voice over Internet protocol, transition timetables and the role of satellite and wireless in closing the so-called “digital divide” (CD May 25 p8). A Genachowski spokesman didn’t respond to requests for comment.
USTelecom is leading its own talks with LECs to come up with an industry-endorsed reform package. AT&T and Verizon are urging a relatively quick transition, with a large access recovery fund to help offset mid-size and rural LECs’ losses. “Discussions continue to be productive, and we are optimistic that our ongoing talks will produce broad industry consensus on a proposal for restructuring universal service and intercarrier compensation,” USTelecom Vice President Jonathan Banks said Thursday.
While the talks are continuing, each sector is pressing its own case, though. The Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance met with Genachowski adviser Zac Katz, Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett and advisers to the other three commissioners this week, ITTA President Genevieve Morelli said Thursday. “To date, the industry has not coalesced around a framework,” Morelli told us. “And if that doesn’t happen in the near future, that will require the FCC to make some very hard decisions very quickly.” Mid-sized telcos are worried about having “sufficient revenue to maintain broadband networks,” Morelli said. “That translates on the ICC side to a revenue recovery mechanism if recovery rates are going to be forced down,” she said. “It requires on the USF side that they receive the funds that have enabled them to deploy broadband.” ITTA’s job is to make “sure that the FCC doesn’t inadvertently take a step backwards and inadvertently undo the benefits for the consumers,” Morelli said.
With the USF/intercarrier comp lobbying season unofficially open, some providers are also taking shots at one another. In an ex parte notice released Thursday, for instance, Bright House Networks accused Verizon of acting like a “bully on the school playground” on VoIP traffic. Verizon reneged on a deal with Bright House, the cable company said, and the FCC can’t trust Verizon’s hymns to the virtues of “the market.” “'The market’ has nothing to say about various carriers’ legal rights under applicable statutes, regulations, and precedents,” Bright House said. “A bully on the school playground can extract lunch money from other children, but that is not a ‘market’ transaction as between the two of them. Similarly, it is not a ‘market’ transaction when a large carrier like Verizon or AT&T choose to ignore its regulatory obligations to pay access charges, even if some smaller entities choose to ’take it,’ either by doing nothing or by entering into some form of settlement.” Verizon didn’t respond by our deadline to a request for comment.