Broadband deployment could get a boost from the economic stimulus bills moving through Congress, USTelecom President Walter McCormick told Senate leaders Tuesday, shortly after the House passed its bill (HR-5140) 385-35. McCormick urged the Senate to repeal the telephone excise tax, pass a temporary provision to encourage “repatriation of cash earned by foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies for use in the U.S. economy,” and approve a 50 percent bonus depreciation. The depreciation provision would increase incentives for businesses to invest in fiber, he said. The cash repatriation provision could drive “significant sums of foreign earnings” back to the United States, which USTelecom members could use for broadband deployment. “We agree that any stimulus package should be immediate, temporary and cost- effective,” McCormick said.
Work on a mammoth five-year farm bill (HR-2419) probably will start next week, as conferees are named after the Senate returns. USTelecom said Wednesday it is pleased that so many of its suggestions are reflected in the bill. The group praised a Senate provision making Connect Kentucky, a state broadband program, the model for a national effort.
Representatives of telecom companies of all sizes met Tuesday with FCC commissioners to push an interim cap on Universal Service Fund subsidies to competitive telecom companies. Representatives of Embarq, Verizon, Windstream, the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance, the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies and USTelecom told commissioners in separate meetings that the interim cap would be a first step toward stabilizing the fund while the commission devises a longer-term way to slow its growth. One representative said the companies making that case vary on how to reform the fund but agree that the cap is the way to start.
USTelecom asked the FCC to extend the comment period on a petition by Feature Group IP asking the FCC to forbear from applying access charges to IP traffic. Delaying comments would give the FCC time to combine this petition with one filed Friday by Embarq asking the FCC not to exempt IP-based voice providers from access charge payments (CD Jan 14 p1). USTelecom recommended delaying the deadline for comments from Jan. 17 to Feb. 19 and for replies from Feb. 19 to March 14. “The importance of these issues to the public interest in broadband networks and the Commission’s broadband policies strongly militate” toward combining the petitions, the group said. That would treat them “holistically,” conserving FCC resources, USTelecom said. It also would let parties file one set of comments on the “interplay” between the petitions and provide “more precise and focused legal and policy analysis,” USTelecom said.
It’s unclear whether a national cable ownership cap approved 3-2 at last month’s commissioner meeting (CD Dec 19 p1) will apply to all cable and telecommunications companies selling TV, said industry officials. It’s clear that the cap limits to 30 percent the number of all satellite, telco-TV and cable subscribers a cable operator can have, said industry and FCC officials. Less certain is how the as-yet- released rule will apply to telecommunications companies. Satellite companies won’t be capped, said FCC officials and cable lawyers.
Communications and Internet companies have given $47,000 in PAC contributions to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for his 2008 presidential run, a pittance compared with the total $30.4 million McCain has amassed. But that’s the most the industries have given to any candidate this campaign, according to CQ’s Political Moneyline and Federal Election Commission reports. The communications industry will give much more as the contest heats up if historical patterns hold.
President Bush said Thursday he is “disappointed” that Congress failed to pass bills immunizing telecom providers for their alleged roles in a post-Sept. 11 warrantless wiretapping program. “The first priority of Congress when it returns in the new year must be to pass a good bill and get it to my desk promptly,” Bush told a press briefing. “They have a duty to give our professionals the tools necessary to protect the American people.”
An FCC proposal to crack down on “traffic pumping” by changing its rules got a mixed response in comments filed late Monday. Big long-distance companies like AT&T continued to encourage the agency’s plan, but rural telecom groups warned against “over-regulating” and “unintended negative consequences.” George Mason University’s Mercatus Center concluded the FCC’s proposals are “flawed” and offered the agency a different approach.
The Senate passed 72-14 Friday a farm bill with provisions making loans for rural areas with few or no broadband providers more readily available. Telecom groups praised the long-stalled measure, which still must be conferenced with a House bill. The bill would create a nationwide broadband service provider database modeled on a program in Kentucky that has received widespread praise. “We are particularly pleased with the proposed reforms made to the Rural Utility Service (RUS) broadband program to better target broadband loans to rural communities and increase the number of service providers that are eligible for the loans,” said USTelecom President Walter McCormick. The bill would ensure that “all consumers enjoy the same benefits from high- speed Internet services, regardless of where they live,” McCormick said. The cable industry gave a thumbs up on passage of the bill as well. “We are especially pleased with the provisions of the Farm Bill that reform the RUS Broadband Loan Program to ensure that funds are better directed to rural communities that currently do not have access to broadband service,” said NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow.
A digital TV order requiring broadcasters to air public- service ads has been held up on the FCC’s eighth floor because of commissioners’ concerns and many higher priorities, agency sources said. A proposed order was circulated by Chairman Kevin Martin in mid-October (CD Oct 18 p7). But at least two commissioners haven’t voted on it, the sources said.