The Nebraska Public Service Commission will mull changing state USF contribution in a Jan. 6 hearing at 10 a.m., members decided 4-0 Tuesday. One member was excused. The state commission is weighing a proposal in docket NUSF-119 to extend its connections-based mechanism to business and government services. Big carriers oppose that change (see 2009020032). The Oklahoma Corporation Commission could vote next week on changing state USF contribution from a revenue-based method to a connections-based mechanism with a 91 cents per line monthly surcharge (see 2008110047). An administrative law judge last month recommended changing to connections. Commissioners, scheduled to hold a hearing on exceptions to the ALJ recommendation next Tuesday, “might vote at the end of the hearing, or take the matter under advisement,” an OCC spokesperson emailed Monday. CTIA complained Oct. 30 that the ALJ barely discussed its views, including that the connections method may violate state or federal law and hurt poor or unemployed people (see 2008170054). AT&T, CTIA and the Oklahoma AG “place an outsized emphasis on potential changes to amounts contributed by customer classes and completely ignore the record concerning growing inequities under the current revenue-based methodology,” the OUSF administrator responded, posted Nov. 10. Meanwhile, in Texas last week, the Public Utility Commission again urged the legislature to deal with state USF, despite concerns by state lawmakers, small telcos and others that the fund may become insolvent without PUC action before the legislature meets in 2021 (see 2010160052). Texans paid more than $2.7 billion into TUSF over the past 10 years, so the commission “was reluctant, in the midst of a pandemic and economic downturn, to further burden the Texans who pay into the fund,” Executive Director John Paul Urban responded to four Texas House members who raised concerns. The PUC didn’t consider increasing the surcharge until funds nearly ran out because telecom companies who pay into TUSF didn’t “provide any insight into the drastic declines in reviews that abruptly occurred,” Urban said. “When Commission staff estimated the fee needed to support all the requested TUSF subsidies, they had to account for the downward trends in revenue and a depleting fund balance. These trends continue to worsen and the fund balance continues to deplete.”
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Senior Editor, is the state and local telecommunications reporter for Communications Daily, where he also has covered Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. He has won awards for his Warren Communications News reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, Specialized Information Publishers Association and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of dystopian science-fiction novels. You can follow Bender at WatchAdam.blog and @WatchAdam on Twitter.
State and local governments want to reset relationships with the FCC under President-elect Joe Biden in 2021, said officials from NARUC, NATOA and the National Association of State Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) in interviews this week. A new FCC means “new beginnings” and a chance to build bridges, said NARUC President Paul Kjellander, elected association head Tuesday (see 2011100060).
NARUC’s Telecom Committee supported lowering phone rates for the incarcerated and asking the FCC to share network outage reporting system (NORS) information with states. At the NARUC virtual annual conference Tuesday, the panel also created a subcommittee on states' eligible telecom carrier authority, as expected (see 2011050051). The committee tweaked the inmate calling service resolution to appease some members’ concerns about lobbying legislatures. A day earlier, ICS providers differed on whether and how the California Public Utilities Commission should regulate intrastate rates.
USF contribution reform could still be a long way off, said FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly and former Chair Mignon Clyburn at NARUC’s virtual annual conference Tuesday. O’Rielly, co-chair of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, slammed that body as dysfunctional. Earlier in the day, state officials cited the COVID-19 pandemic as they urged national broadband action.
Both political parties increasingly see more broadband as critical as the presidency changes hands, said panelists at the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) conference Monday. Although President Donald Trump hasn't conceded, officials highlighted some ways Democratic President-elect Joe Biden could take advantage of political consensus to push the issue forward.
State commissioners can influence broadband policy even with limited telecom authority, said NARUC broadband task force members at the association’s virtual annual meeting Thursday. Utility regulators’ telecom role “has diminished significantly” in most states, but they can still “play the role of honest broker,” said Idaho Public Utilities Commissioner Paul Kjellander, who next week becomes NARUC president. Collaboration with federal government is a must, said other commissioners.
New Mexicans voted to switch from an elected Public Regulation Commission to one that's governor-appointed, with 55% voting yes Tuesday. It's the 40th state with appointed commissioners. A key state telecom commissioner will continue in her job, and many other elected incumbents also appeared to hold seats, showed state results Wednesday (see 2011040019). Denver is the latest and largest city to opt out of Colorado’s ban on municipal broadband.
Voters greenlit a sequel to the California Consumer Privacy Act, as expected. Opponents conceded Wednesday.
Punishing state 911 fee diverters could worsen funding problems for the emergency call system and might be ineffective, commented local and public safety groups this week in docket 20-291. Penalizing local governments for states’ decisions is “much like sending your daughter to bed without dinner because your son took a cookie from the jar without permission,” the National Association of State 911 Administrators (NASNA) responded to the FCC notice of inquiry. “The two siblings are related, but the response is not.”
Election Day hasn't brought sweeping telecom regulation changes in state races, although there will be a revamp in one state. And a key state regulator will continue in her job.