Two trade association for small rural carriers said they back the FCC’s overhaul plan for the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation, after FCC Chairman Kevin Martin agreed to several concessions for rate-of-return carriers. The Western Telecommunications Alliance and the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies approved the plan after “numerous direct conversations” with Martin, including a conference call Tuesday night ending around 7:45 p.m., directly before the start of sunshine. The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association called the endorsement “very risky and dangerous.”
With the proper revisions, major cable and wireless associations said, they would back FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s plan to overhaul the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation. Meanwhile, Qwest, congressmen and consumer advocates took sides. The FCC plans to vote Nov. 4 on the Martin plan. Sunshine was to have gone into effect Tuesday (CD Oct 28 p2).
With a lobbying ban looming, telecom interests are making feverish last-minute pitches to sway commissioners on possible overhauls for the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation. Unless the FCC says otherwise, lobbying on the issue ends sometime Tuesday, with release of the commission’s sunshine notice for the Nov. 4 meeting. Verizon recently joined AT&T and Qwest in endorsing comprehensive reform.
Commissioner Deborah Tate praised the FCC for drafting a revamp for the universal service fund and intercarrier compensation. But speaking Friday at a Free State Foundation forum, the commissioner mostly kept mum on her opinions of the proposed order circulating on the eighth floor. Tate said she’s “inclined to support” a pilot USF Lifeline/LinkUp program proposed by Chairman Kevin Martin to get broadband to low-income households. She didn’t say anything about the draft’s other points except that she hopes for consensus.
A “hidden dagger” in FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s draft order on a comprehensive intercarrier compensation overhaul could mean no more access charges for AT&T and Verizon, said a National Telecommunications Cooperative Alliance official in an interview. If the Bells can avoid access charges, everything else in the comprehensive overhaul becomes “inconsequential” and a “distraction,” said Dan Mitchell, NTCA legal vice president. AT&T, which endorsed Martin’s draft, denied the NTCA claims.
In the wake of the financial crisis, government will probably try to do more telecom regulation, said panelists at a New York Law School Advanced Communications Law & Policy forum Friday. Comparing banking to the telecom industry is like comparing “apples and freight trains,” said James Gattuso, a Heritage Foundation senior research fellow. But after eight-plus years of market-based regulation, the “knee jerk reaction from government” may be that “we have to do something” different, said Republican Missouri state Rep. Ed Emery.
Wireline officials raised red flags about the FCC’s draft intercarrier-compensation overhaul the day after Chairman Kevin Martin unveiled it (CD Oct 16 p2). The plan isn’t publicly available, but industry officials in interviews said the package favors the largest carriers and hurts small and midsized companies. If the FCC adopts the plan as is, the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association may challenge it in court, said Dan Mitchell, NTCA legal vice president, in an interview.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin wants to add broadband obligations to the Universal Service Fund, move to numbers- based USF contribution and apply reciprocal compensation rates to all traffic, he said Wednesday. At a news briefing, the chairman said implementing his plan would “modernize” USF and intercarrier compensation for a broadband, IP-based world. Martin late Tuesday circulated a draft version of the plan, including a report and order, order on remand and further notice of proposed rulemaking. Commissioners will vote at the agency’s Nov. 4 meeting. If the item is adopted, it would apply to 48 states, exempting Alaska and Hawaii, Martin said.
ORLANDO -- Due to more pressing issues, neither presidential candidate will focus on telecom policy immediately after the election, surrogates for Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John McCain, R-Ariz., said in a CompTel debate Tuesday. However, candidates are interested in telecom issues, differing on broadband deployment and network management, among other issues, surrogates said. Larry Irving, Internet Innovation Alliance co-chairman, represented Obama. Lee Dunn, a legislative aide to the McCain presidential campaign, took the Republican side.
ORLANDO -- The telecom industry still is divided on how to revamp intercarrier compensation, indicated speakers at a CompTel panel on the topic. The FCC appears to be teeing up the topic for a Nov. 4 vote. But in a late Monday panel, officials from AT&T, XO Communications the VON Coalition and the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates disagreed not only on overhaul proposals, but on whether the current system even needs fixing.