The FCC has recently approved increases in USF loop cost support for small, average schedule companies, while making official its recent order giving small RLECs more time, coordination, and flexibility in their broadband testing requirements. The Wireline Carrier Bureau’s approval of NECA’s 2020 Modification of Average Schedule High Cost Loop Support Schedule increases revenue for … Read More
Commission Considers Revisions to Broadband Testing Requirements
The FCC, in a recently released Order on Reconsideration (WC Docket No. 10-90), is proposing a number of changes to its previously published broadband testing requirements for carriers receiving high cost universal service support The order (1) links the start of testing to the carriers’ timing of their specific deployment obligations; (2) allows greater flexibility … Read More
Commissioners Spar Over Progress of Broadband Deployment
Not surprisingly, Republican and Democrat leaders of the FCC have radically different opinions regarding the current status of broadband deployment in America. Democrat Commissioners Starks and Rosenworcel, who favor a return to more rigid regulation of the internet, paint a dark and gloomy picture of deployment. Chairman Pai, speaking for the Republican majority, touts substantial … Read More
Court Upholds FCC’s Internet Order . . . Or At Least Most of It
In an October 1st Opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld many of the key provisions of the Commission’s Restoring Internet Freedom Act. That is, the court granted in part and denied in part the petitions for review of several challenging parties. But the net result was the upholding of … Read More
Budget Cap on USF Fails THE Basic Test
As you probably know, the FCC’s recent NPRM proposed an $11.49 billion cap on the total Universal Service Fund. This amount represents the sum of the authorized budgets of the four USF programs in 2018. Not surprisingly, comments on this proposal drew a goodly number of dissenting views from assorted industry sources. One group argued … Read More
FCC Creates New Fraud Division
A newly established Fraud Division, operating within the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, will help protect USF programs from further fraudulent behavior. The Commission’s Order, released earlier this year and just recently made effective, lists just a few examples of past fraud and abuse of Universal Service programs. DataConnex, for instance, was fined $18.7 million for defrauding … Read More
Irregulators: Frozen Separations Factors Cause Malformed Rates
An informal group of former FCC officials, State Attorney General’s Office experts and lawyers, and telecommunications consultants, have taken the FCC to task over its recent Order that extends the freeze of jurisdictional cost separations factors. The Irregulators, as this group calls itself, have filed a Petition for Review in the US Appeals Court in … Read More
Pai: Equal Opportunity Depends on Digital Access
At a recent Latin American Telecommunications Conference, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai declared that the American Dream of “equality of opportunity…depends on access to digital communications.” He then outlined what his Commission is doing to “promote universal access to…digital opportunity.” The Chairman explained that a light touch, “market-based regulatory framework…promotes competition and increases network investment.” In … Read More
Hard USF Caps and USF Principles . . . Oil and Water
The FCC’s recent proposal to impose a total cap on all USF programs is completely incompatible with its long-standing Universal Service principles. The nationwide Communications Act of 1934 stated that “ALL (emphasis added) people in the United States shall have access to rapid, efficient, nationwide communications service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges.” Thus was … Read More
FCC Corrects A-CAM II Offers, Extends Deadline for Acceptance
The FCC recently announced that it had made errors in 37 of its A-CAM II offers to RLECs still receiving legacy support. Its June 5th Public Notice makes corrected offers to the affected carriers, while extending the election date for acceptance to July 17, 2019. This 30-day extension applies to all companies, not just those … Read More
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