Rural Telcos Offer Possible Technical Assumptions for USF Overhaul
Rural telco groups presented FCC officials with a bevy of potential "technical assumptions" for implementing an overhaul of rate-of-return carrier USF support mechanisms. Representatives of the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, NTCA, USTelecom and WTA said that none of their…
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associations were ready to endorse the assumptions they outlined to the FCC in a document, but they were submitting them to help in the identification and discussion of issues that may need further examination and resolution. "This approach has not been fully defined or modeled, and thus does not represent a fully-formed proposal that has been vetted by or is necessarily supported by industry representatives; some of the associations also have continuing questions and some concerns about issues that may arise in connection with such an approach," the groups said in a USTelecom filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. Derrick Owens, WTA vice president of government affairs, told us that the assumptions incorporated feedback from FCC officials, and are to be used to generate projections for rural telco funding under proposed USF changes. "The idea is to see what the effects are for the companies and the fund in general, and to see what other issues will pop up that need to be addressed," he said. The groups in May proposed a two-track overhaul of rate-of-return USF that would create a voluntary model-based approach and revise existing USF mechanisms to support stand-alone broadband, but many details remain in play (see 1506030052 and 1506040028).