Taxpayer Groups Should Be Represented on FCC Consumer Advisory Committee, O’Rielly Says
The FCC must address the overall spending of the USF, not use “savings” from universal service reform to expand other USF programs, FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said Friday in remarks to the commission’s Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC). O'Rielly said he wanted to lay down this marker as the agency takes up Lifeline reform. He also suggested that at least one of the CAC members should come from a group representing taxpayers.
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"We all need to get past the idea that we can count savings from previous reforms,” O'Rielly said. Savings should instead be seen as “a warning sign” that there is “too much waste and abuse in the program and that we've been overcollecting from consumers,” he said. Savings are not “a green light to spend more,” he said.
The FCC needs to do more to attack waste and fraud in the Lifeline program, O'Rielly said. “We simply haven’t done enough to tighten eligibility requirements and remove incentives to scam the system.” Any increase in USF funding in one area must be “offset with reductions in other areas,” he said. “To do otherwise would subject consumers to rate increases."
An FCC official said in response to O'Rielly the FCC approved High-Cost USF reform in 2011, reining in some of the programs and capping much of the fund, as well as major Lifeline reform in January 2012. Both sets of reforms have increased the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the program, the official said.
Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel also spoke to CAC Friday during the group’s daylong meeting at FCC headquarters.
Rosenworcel encouraged CAC to continue to focus on stolen smartphones. She said one in three robberies involves the theft of a phone or other device. But there’s also good news on device theft, with Congress and industry both engaged and legislation in front of lawmakers. Industry has announced it plans to implement new policies for mobile device theft by next July, Rosenworcel said. “You need to put the pressure on to make sure that they live up to those commitments and we make them obligations,” she said.
Rosenworcel said CAC’s contributions are important but often get too little attention. “Good work done in obscurity yields no great benefits,” she said. “You don’t get the attention you deserve.”
Pai stopped by to remind CAC that in many areas of the U.S., even in parts of major cities, consumers have little or no access to broadband. Adoption is important but “availability is an understated problem,” he said. Pai said his parents in rural Kansas don’t have access to high-speed broadband and have to rely on a wireless ISP. When his son speaks with them using Skype, any disruptions are inevitably on his parents’ end, he said.
The reaction to the FCC’s proposed net neutrality rules has been “overwhelming,” with consumers leading the charge, Clyburn said. CAC has an important role in developing rules, she said.
The FCC also has “much, much more work to do” to address calling rates for prison inmates, Clyburn said. She asked CAC to continue its focus on the issue, saying she hopes interim rate caps will soon be made permanent. In a few weeks, inmate calling providers will be required to submit cost data “which will help ensure that this agency has the information necessary to adopt further reforms,” she said. Clyburn said she’s hopeful the IP transition will be beneficial, especially for people with disabilities. “It is breaking down barriers with texting, face-to-face video,” she said. But the FCC has also made clear “our values will never change even as technology evolves,” she said.