FCC Comr. Tate is ‘energized’ at the thought of reverse auctions ...
FCC Comr. Tate is “energized” at the thought of reverse auctions to set rural universal service subsidies, she said Wed. at a Phoenix Center conference. Tate wants to hear “positives and negatives” about use of auctions,” she said. “Something…
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needs to be done” about Universal Service Fund growth, Tate, who is Universal Service Joint Board chmn., said: “I think we are at the tipping point.” One thing to keep in mind, Tate said: USF programs must continue to assure adequate infrastructure for homeland security and interoperability needs. Tate moderated a panel on rural broadband that included Dennis Weller, Verizon’s chief economist, who said an outdated USF must change. “Competitive bidding may be the solution” because it “imposes market discipline,” he said. If the USF model is “restructured,” said Brian Adkins, Embarq’s federal legislative dir., rural wireline carriers must shed their carrier-of-last-resort requirements, or all USF recipients must face those mandates. Net neutrality probably will be the top communications issue, above universal service reform, in the Democratic-led Congress, said Daniel Sepulveda, aide to Sen. Obama (D-Ill.). But universal service offers “opportunities for bipartisan cooperation,” he said.