From its motto, “We Built It, We Maintain It. We Value It,” to its ongoing Campaign to Reduce Regulatory Burden, the Small Company Coalition is a strong advocacy group for the nation’s small RLECs.
The SCC is an alliance of small rural telecommunications and broadband providers, led by Executive Committee members from Laurel Highland Total Communications/Yukon Waltz Telephone Company, Penasco Valley Telecommunications, and Mescalero Apache Telecom. Its primary goal is to influence, reduce or eliminate regulations and legislation that are damaging to RLECs’ provision of advanced telecommunications services.
Through its Campaign to Reduce Regulatory Burden, the SCC targets costly and overreaching regulations and legislation from the FCC, the IRS, EPA, the Department of Labor, and the Affordable Care Act.
Recently, it suggested several USF and related changes to the FCC, including:
- Increasing the arbitrary $2 billion USF cap, to satisfy the unmet needs of small RoR carriers, using the $8 billion currently held in reserve for USF purposes.
- Reforming USAC’s costly and cumbersome audit procedures by focusing on problematic programs and “bad actors,” and utilizing a “materiality” threshold.
- Eliminating overlapping and outdated FCC reporting requirements, to significantly reduce the roughly 900 hours it now takes companies annually to meet these burdensome obligations.
We feel that the Small Company Coalition is an extremely worthwhile organization, and urge more RLECs to join. For more information or a membership application, visit its website at www.smallcompanycoalition.com.
