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The FCC asked the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service ...

The FCC asked the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service to review the FCC’s high-cost universal service support mechanisms for rural carriers and recommend whether changes are needed. The FCC in an order released Mon. said it sought recommendations…

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on development of a plan “that ensures that support is specific, predictable and sufficient to preserve and advance universal service.” The agency said it also sought recommendations on how to target that support to rural telephone companies serving high-cost areas “while protecting against excessive fund growth.” Though the vote was 5-0, Comrs. Martin and Adelstein said they were concerned about part of the order that asked the Joint Board to consider whether regulators should move to a forward-looking economic cost model for calculating high-cost support for some rural companies. “I questioned the Commission’s use of forward-looking costs as the basis for distributing universal service support for non-rural telephone companies and would have even greater concerns if such an approach would be used to distribute support to rural companies,” Martin said. Adelstein said the FCC in its Rural Task Force Order 3 years ago had determined “one size does ,not fit all” when considering universal service support mechanisms “so it gives me great pause that this… order asks the Joint Board to consider the use of forward-looking cost models to calculate support for rural telephone companies.”