FCC to Spend ‘Increasing Energy’ on Broadband Adoption, FCC Chief of Staff Says
The FCC will spend “increasing energy” on broadband adoption programs, commission Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus told an FCBA luncheon in Washington Friday. Adoption is Chairman Julius Genachowski’s top priority after spectrum and Universal Service Fund reform, Lazarus said. “I can guarantee you we will be working with everyone in this room,” Lazarus said. The commission is not clear on which “levers” it will use to increase broadband adoption, but one possibility is through merger conditions, as with the Comcast-NBCU deal. A former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, Lazarus said he thought broadband adoption was the “civil rights issue for its time.”
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The adoption initiative will be led by Genachowski’s special counselor, Josh Gottheimer, Lazarus told us at Friday’s luncheon, declining further comment on the commission’s adoption program. But the commission will put “pedal to the metal” on fixing the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime, Lazarus said.
Rural telcos are leery of talk of “adoption,” two telecom lobbyists told us Friday. Many rural companies are afraid that the FCC’s universal service reforms will lead to stripping rural areas of high-cost support in favor of subsidies for big cities. “Adoption” discussions generally target poor neighborhoods in big cities rather than remote, rural areas, the telecom lobbyists said.
Rural lobbyists have taken to the Hill and the eighth floor in an effort to stave off what they see as a disaster in the universal service overhaul. Last week President Barack Obama formed a White House task force to focus on rural broadband (CD June 10 p11). Late last month, Genachowski tried to assure Congress that his agency is trying to give rural telcos a chance to make their cases. In letters dated May 31 but released Friday, Genachowski told Sens. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, John Thune, R-S.D., and 28 other senators, as well as Reps. Tim Johnson, R-Ill., Lee Terry, R-Neb., and 38 other House members that his agency will keep rural telcos’ concerns in mind. “The Commission is mindful of the fact that changes to the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation system may affect providers serving rural areas that receive public funding from other governmental agencies such as the Rural Utilities Service (RUS),” Genachowski said. “A reformed, broadband-focused Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation system should complement RUS’s efforts to spur broadband build-out in rural America through public-private partnerships."
The FCC has asked for data from companies receiving RUS support and is “working closely with RUS to address related issues,” Genachowski said. “The Commission will analyze the data we receive to determine the appropriate size of future recovery mechanisms and any necessary transitions to those mechanisms.”