Stinson Morrison attorney Harvey Reiter will get just seven minutes to persuade Denver appeals court judges that the FCC’s 2011 revamp of the USF and intercarrier compensation rules unlawfully hurt his rural CLEC clients. Asked if that’s enough time, Reiter responded with a hearty laugh. “It is what it is,” he said. Scott McCollough of the Austin firm McCullough Henry has five minutes to convince the court that the FCC abandoned the statutory construct of “user” versus “carrier.” McCullough expects to “be interrupted within the first five seconds,” he told us, erupting into laughter.

The FCC needs to do more to stop the “lingering uncertainty” of quantile regression analysis, a crucial part of the November 2011 USF order, 26 senators wrote FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler (http://bit.ly/1gpCSon). Signatories include Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Judiciary Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. They called quantile regression analysis “one of the main causes of uncertainty” and said they appreciate the FCC’s efforts to “temporarily relieve” the effects of the analysis. “We remain concerned the reform order is limiting the ability of small rate-of-return carriers to provide rural consumers with the broadband service they need to compete in today’s global economy,” said the letter sent this week. The order is causing declining private sector investment, the letter said. “Both potential borrowers and lenders have indicated hesitation in moving forward with loans for broadband infrastructure improvements due to the uncertainties created by the reform order.” USTelecom posted the letter Tuesday and said it was sent Monday. “As of today, more than 70 senators and representatives have written to the FCC about the QRA, and USTelecom continues to encourage members of Congress to reach out to the commission on this important issue,” said USTelecom in a blog post Tuesday (http://bit.ly/HEQqhp). It noted the letter urged the FCC not to slow Connect America Fund Phase II implementation.

"The current state of connectivity feeds inequality,” said National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling Tuesday at a Washington Post event on the country’s lingering digital divide. That sentiment was shared by every official and educator who took the stage, as they struggled with how to increase broadband connection and adoption among those who lack access, can’t afford it, or say they don’t want it.

Maximizing the benefits of high-speed Internet is “vital” to America, FCC Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn told the National Urban League Wednesday, according to prepared remarks. There’s a “direct link” between access to broadband and access to jobs, and an Urban League report showed that 77 percent of African Americans have used broadband to search for jobs, she said. The adoption gap between African Americans and whites has been reduced nearly 50 percent since 2009, she said. But too many Americans still find themselves “lost behind by the broadband revolution,” with about 100 million people without high-speed Internet at home, she said. “Broadband is no longer a luxury, it is essential.” FCC partnerships with the Urban League have helped jumpstart Connect2Compete to close the broadband adoption gap, and FCC reform of outdated USF rules has made significant new funding available for broadband buildout, she said. Commission efforts to modernize E-rate will further enhance Americans’ access to high-speed Internet, she said. But the challenges of closing the digital divide are “too great for any one person or organization to solve,” she said. “That’s why increased public-private sector collaboration is so important."

Tom Wheeler is getting ready to take command at the FCC next week after being confirmed along with Michael O'Rielly to the commission seats Tuesday night. Wheeler is expected to be sworn in Monday morning, FCC officials said. In the intervening days the administration has to complete paperwork to confirm the appointment, a process that generally takes several days, and will likely finish getting rid of any remaining financial entanglements, said current and former officials. Wheeler is also expected to unveil some of his key staff selections early in the week, officials said.

The FCC is penalizing minority businesses by denying a waiver request from Adak Eagle Enterprises, the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council told acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn in a letter Monday. The organization is throwing its weight behind a petition by AEE and its subsidiary Windy City Cellular seeking reconsideration of a rule limiting line support to $250 per month. The companies are “two of few minority-owned telecommunications businesses in the U.S.,” MMTC said. “The Commission should consider ways to support -- rather than penalize minority or women-owned businesses” that enter “a competitive communications ecosystem,” it said. The Wireline and Wireless Bureaus based their denial on “unreasonable” operating expenses, disproportionate executive compensation, and the presence of an alternative carrier on Adak Island. The bureau’s reasoning was flawed, MMTC said: “The bureaus support GCI providing Adak Island with fewer services to a smaller geographic area, and to fewer customers, at more cost to the USF. At the same time, a small, minority-owned business is providing more and better services, including what appears to be the only 911 service, serving a larger geographic area and more customers, all while historically taking less support.” By reversing its denial, the commission will “assist in preserving women- and minority-owned rural communications providers, serving community interests, and reducing destructive and inhibitive regulatory barriers in the communications industry,” MMTC said.

Agencies across the federal government must embrace broadband adoption strategies, with congressional prompting if necessary, some broadband adoption advocates told a Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing Tuesday. They highlighted where gaps still exist and discussed the role of public-private partnerships and ways companies have tried to close the digital divide.

Congress should set national goals and performance metrics in the deployment and adoption of broadband, Sunne Wright McPeak, president of the California Emerging Technology Fund, plans to testify Tuesday. The goals and frameworks should include a timetable and assigned responsibilities, she will say, urging continued implementation of the National Broadband Plan and use of NTIA’s broadband adoption tool kit, released earlier this year. McPeak is to be a witness before the Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing on broadband adoption, set for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in 253 Russell. Other witnesses include Aaron Smith, senior researcher at the Pew Research Center, Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen, Blandin Foundation Director-Public Policy and Engagement Bernadine Joselyn and Broadband for America Honorary Co-chair John Sununu. McPeak will discuss her experiences leading the California broadband fund and back the integration of broadband and information technologies into all federal policies and programs. “There is a need to ‘connect the dots’ with a set of coherent strategies that transcend ‘bureaucratic silos’ to optimize access to and use of the Internet with high-speed connections,” she will say, according to her written testimony. The U.S. Department of Education must ensure broadband is integrated throughout schools, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development should pursue “smart housing,” she is to say. The Homeland Security Department should be a “proactive partner” to FirstNet, according to McPeak. She will ask “the FCC to structure USF reforms for a Broadband Lifeline Rate Program and eRate [sic] to encourage and reward providers who partner with non-profit intermediaries (such as EveryoneOn) and trusted [community-based organizations] with a proven track record and align with state plans,” according to her testimony. “Reimbursement and subsidies from the USF should reward public-private partnerships that drive to and achieve explicit broadband adoption goals."

Beleaguered Alaskan telco Adak Eagle Enterprises, whose requests for waiver of the FCC’s new Universal Service Fund rules have been roundly denied by the Wireline and Wireless bureaus (CD July 17 p14), pleaded with the commission to reconsider. In a filing Wednesday the company and subsidiary Windy City Cellular characterized themselves as “tiny companies that worked tirelessly against the odds” to offer phone service in the Alaskan wilderness “when no one else would” (http://bit.ly/1hcWStf). They urged the agency to stop its ceaseless requests for more supplemental information, which have ravaged the carriers: “The FCC is now on the verge of completely destroying the companies.” The Alaskan congressional delegation sent a letter to acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn last week warning of the harm that could befall the Adak community if the commission lets its decision stand.

The Iowa Utilities Board did not make any significant changes in its staff report on telecommunications regulation, but it established a roadmap for the IUB going forward, Iowa Telecommunications Association President Dave Duncan told us Wednesday. The staff report (http://bit.ly/HfqPf0), attached to an order to end the IUB’s notice of inquiry, listed some statutory changes to clean up the legislation based on comments and a workshop in September (CD Sept 11 p16), said Duncan. “The IUB addressed some issues that were clearly outdated that needed to be cleaned up,” he said. The IUB played the next steps “close to the vest,” Bret Dublinske, Gonzalez Saggio attorney, told us. Dublinske acted on behalf of several interested parties including Sprint, tw telecom, Cox, Securus and CTIA. “It collectively raises the possibility for rulemakings and what will be teed up in the future, but a lot remains to be seen."