Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction winners must follow through on broadband promises, NARUC Telecom Committee members said in interviews last week. NARUC plans to vote at its Feb. 4-5 and 8-11 meeting on a draft resolution urging the FCC to scrutinize RDOF long-form applications (see 2101260033). Some commissioners raised doubts about fixed wireless and said they’re unfamiliar with entities that won federal dollars.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission aims to spur broadband with its first pole-attachment dispute resolution since the state asserted authority in March by reverse preempting the FCC, Chairman Gladys Brown Dutrieuille said at Thursday's virtual meeting. Commissioners voted unanimously to reduce telecom attachment rates FirstEnergy charges Verizon. In other states that day, California Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D) announced a second go at her Broadband for All bill and Colorado’s Broadband Advisory Board held its first meeting.

USF contribution reform could still be a long way off, said FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly and former Chair Mignon Clyburn at NARUC’s virtual annual conference Tuesday. O’Rielly, co-chair of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, slammed that body as dysfunctional. Earlier in the day, state officials cited the COVID-19 pandemic as they urged national broadband action.

State commissioners can influence broadband policy even with limited telecom authority, said NARUC broadband task force members at the association’s virtual annual meeting Thursday. Utility regulators’ telecom role “has diminished significantly” in most states, but they can still “play the role of honest broker,” said Idaho Public Utilities Commissioner Paul Kjellander, who next week becomes NARUC president. Collaboration with federal government is a must, said other commissioners.

State commissioners can influence broadband policy even with limited telecom authority, said NARUC broadband task force members at the association’s virtual annual meeting Thursday. Utility regulators’ telecom role “has diminished significantly” in most states, but they can still “play the role of honest broker,” said Idaho Public Utilities Commissioner Paul Kjellander, who next week becomes NARUC president. Collaboration with federal government is a must, said other commissioners.

The lawyer for the Tri-County Telephone Association challenging the FCC’s nearly $1 billion USF telecom rebuild program for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands faced questions Thursday as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral argument in TCT's case (docket 20-1003 in Pacer). Judges challenged the group’s argument that the FCC doesn't have authority to use high-cost USF support dollars for disaster relief.

Increasing the Lifeline benefit would require USF contribution changes, AT&T Executive Vice President-Regulatory Joan Marsh blogged Wednesday. Lifeline “needs to be reformed from its current provider-centric structure to one that instead puts the beneficiary at the center of a more digital approach, as modeled after the Department of Agriculture’s successful and evolving [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] program,” Marsh said. Congress must "ensure that funds are directly appropriated to support any benefit increase or otherwise ensure that the USF funding mechanism is significantly reformed,” she said. Carriers, state regulators and public industry groups united in opposition to an FCC proposal to raise the Lifeline wireless broadband minimum service standard (see 2009150072). In Sept. 3 letters replying to Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and other members of Congress, posted Tuesday, Chairman Ajit Pai said the commission “is faced with wildly divergent requests." The "subscribers shouldn’t receive second-class service, so the status quo is unacceptable,” but a dramatic increase “is likely to disrupt the market,” he wrote. Pai proposed a “modest increase to 4.5 GB.”

Increasing the Lifeline benefit would require USF contribution changes, AT&T Executive Vice President-Regulatory Joan Marsh blogged Wednesday. Lifeline “needs to be reformed from its current provider-centric structure to one that instead puts the beneficiary at the center of a more digital approach, as modeled after the Department of Agriculture’s successful and evolving [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] program,” Marsh said. Congress must "ensure that funds are directly appropriated to support any benefit increase or otherwise ensure that the USF funding mechanism is significantly reformed,” she said. Carriers, state regulators and public industry groups united in opposition to an FCC proposal to raise the Lifeline wireless broadband minimum service standard (see 2009150072). In Sept. 3 letters replying to Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and other members of Congress, posted Tuesday, Chairman Ajit Pai said the commission “is faced with wildly divergent requests." The "subscribers shouldn’t receive second-class service, so the status quo is unacceptable,” but a dramatic increase “is likely to disrupt the market,” he wrote. Pai proposed a “modest increase to 4.5 GB.”

The Nebraska Public Service Commission should keep the revenue-based USF contribution for business and government services because it’s less complex than a connections-based mechanism, big telecom and cable companies said in comments received Monday and emailed to us Wednesday. The PSC is proposing to expand its connections-based method that now applies only to residential services (see 2008110047). “Business customers' connections may fluctuate” and “the applicable surcharge would need to be examined, and potentially changed on a monthly basis,” Cox Communications, Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable commented jointly in docket NUSF-119. Large business customers might relocate to a lesser taxed state due to rate shock, the cablers warned. Carriers understand revenue-based contribution; applying contributions to business and government services “will be complex, costly and confusing,” said AT&T. Complexities applying the connections method to business and government services have increased in the past three years, said CenturyLink. COVID-19 “has caused an unprecedented shift to work from home and away from business communications services which is likely to impact the analysis,” it added. Nebraska law requires revenue-based contribution for prepaid wireless services, said CTIA. A connections method for residential services stabilized and increased the fund, so "the financial threat to the NUSF viability has been overcome,” said Frontier Communications. Moving to connections for business and government lines is "impractical at this time," said Windstream. Small rural telcos countered that applying connections-based contribution for all kinds of services is fairer. “Much of rural Nebraska remains unserved or underserved," and current remittances "will come nowhere close" to providing enough support, commented the Rural Telecommunications Coalition of Nebraska. Exempt prepaid wireless, toll revenue and directory, private line and paging services, which don't lend themselves to a connections-based surcharge, said a state group of rural independent companies. Keep revenue-based at least for institutional operator service providers, urged Securus, saying it doesn’t “have the ability to determine or charge the NUSF applying a connections-based methodology" because it charges prison customers per call.

Industry, USF recipients and consumer advocates are exploring new ways to fund USF. Talks began last year and remain in early stages, participants said in interviews. Parties fear the contribution factor, which reached a record high of 25% last fall (see 1909130003), isn't sustainable. Some want to present a unified funding proposal to Congress or the FCC. Most want the matter addressed next year.