Changing dynamics in Washington may influence the balance of federalism, multiple state utility commissioners told us. Commissioners from around the country will gather in Denver Sunday through Wednesday for NARUC’s summer meeting and will address questions of state-federal relations as part of NARUC’s Task Force on Telecom and Federalism and in policy debates. The state role remains critical, said the commissioners, stressing evolving technologies and consumer protections after years of what some consider federal and industry overreach. The five draft telecom resolutions being considered also speak to these changes, they said.
The FCC’s Connect America Fund will be the subject of a cost-model order and a new boundary mapping tool soon, agency officials told state regulators at the winter NARUC meeting. But as the FCC moves full steam ahead on what it’s calling its highest priority, state regulators worried about boundary area mapping expressed concern that some of the FCC’s plans may be coming too soon for states and companies to handle.
State utility commissioner elections saw widespread Republican victories Tuesday. There were 16 Republican wins, 10 featuring incumbents, and three Democratic wins. That includes three Montana Republicans, who maintain leads but weren’t formally declared as of Wednesday afternoon. Four Republicans ran unopposed, as did a Democrat.
Three state commissioners from largely rural states questioned whether the U.S. can ever provide universal access to broadband service. It’s like the notion of energy independence, Idaho Public Utilities Commissioner Paul Kjellander said Thursday during a National Regulatory Research Institute panel on state USF funds (http://xrl.us/bnv2ow). “But we're never going to get it,” he said. “It’s too expensive. ... Some divides just can’t be bridged.”
Over 83,000 new U.S. road miles in 31 states will get access to mobile Internet within 3 years, the FCC said Wednesday as it disclosed results of its Mobility Fund “Auction 901” to allocate $300 million toward closing gaps in mobile coverage. Carriers that received funding must complete projects within three years, and must make their networks available to other providers for roaming, the commission said. The Competitive Carriers Association praised the one-time “infusion” of support, but said the agency needs to make more funding available on an annual basis if it wants to achieve its universal service goals.
Comments filed on USF contribution reform show little agreement and point to the need for more discussion, Verizon and Verizon Wireless said in FCC reply comments. That conclusion was seconded by many companies and groups filing replies this week. Though many suggested short-term fixes, most agreed there is little consensus to move to a numbers-based or connections-based approach.
The FCC’s new quantile regression analysis (QRA) will decrease Wauneta Telephone Co.’s federal USF support by $138,636, the company said in a letter to Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett (http://xrl.us/bndsdi). The support reduction will negatively impact the company’s customers and employees, it said. The company asked the bureau to assist it with evaluating the QRA results and provide information on the company’s study area and calculation methodology. Wauneta is a family-owned local exchange phone service provider with 525 access lines in southwestern Nebraska.
Two months after the FCC’s declaratory ruling to “remind” carriers about the longstanding prohibition on traffic restriction, call completion problems aren’t getting any better, several rural carriers and state public utility commissioners told us. Call completion will remain a problem until the FCC actively enforces rules already on the books, they said, stressing the inability of state commissions to deal with problems that cross state lines. According to a survey by network and infrastructure company Anpi Zone presented Thursday at the “IP Solutions” conference in Indianapolis, more than 60 percent of ILEC and CLEC respondents said call-quality problems have either not improved or gotten worse since the declaratory ruling.
The FCC’s proposed methodology for setting an upper limit of high-cost loop support paid to incumbent rate-of-return LECs is fundamentally sound, but needs additional analysis of specific implementation issues, said two economists asked by the Wireline Bureau to do peer reviews (http://xrl.us/bmxvwu). The Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation order adopted a rule to limit reimbursable capital and operations expenses relative to a LEC’s “similarly situated” peers.
Implementing the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation order, tackling consumer issues like bill shock and cramming, and developing a framework for Next Generation 911 are priorities for FCC this year, bureau chiefs said during NARUC’s telecom committee meeting Tuesday.