The Oklahoma Corporation Commission wants a third-party administrator of its state universal service fund by July. The regulator issued a request for proposals (http://bit.ly/194H3kl) with a deadline of June 7, looking for either an individual or organization to manage the fund and serve as what it calls the fund’s “financial hub.” The manager “is responsible for collecting pro rata contributions based on telecommunications service providers’ intrastate end-user telecommunications retail revenues, at a rate set by the OCC, and depositing these revenues into the OUSF,” said the RFP. “The Manager will also distribute money from the OUSF on the first of each month to telecommunications carriers certificated [sic] in the State of Oklahoma.” The manager won’t be able to advocate telecom positions unrelated to USF before the commission, the RFP said. The contract will last a year, with options for four one-year extensions.

LAS VEGAS -- Acting FCC Chairman Mignon Clyburn told the CTIA conference Tuesday that making more spectrum available for licensed use will be one of her top priorities. Clyburn also promised the commission would wrap up rules for the incentive auction of broadcast-TV spectrum this year and said the auction is still on target to take place in 2014. It was her first major speech in her new job, for which she was sworn in Saturday.

TracFone Wireless said Friday it supported a recent request by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., for an audit of the FCC’s USF Lifeline program and urged lawmakers to impose further reforms of the program. “In our view, all responsible Lifeline wireless service providers will embrace such additional scrutiny,” said the company in a news release. Reforms to the program are “working, but additional steps must be taken to further streamline the program and reduce opportunities for waste, fraud and abuse,” the company said. Last week, McCaskill urged the U.S. Comptroller General to conduct a forensic audit of the FCC’s USF Lifeline program to prevent fraud and abuse in the program. McCaskill previously sponsored a failed amendment to this year’s budget resolution that sought to end the program.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said work on the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum is moving forward as well as could be expected. Genachowski is pleased the agency has launched a critical debate headed into an auction that could start as early as next year, he said in an interview Friday as he prepared to leave the commission. Genachowski, a friend of President Barack Obama, chaired the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Policy Working Group during the 2008 Obama presidential campaign, and has been on the job since June 2009.

Adak Eagle Enterprises and its subsidiary Windy City Cellular submitted their long-term plan to transition “as close to the $250 per line monthly cap on high-cost USF support as possible” (http://bit.ly/12ev5iH). The companies have sought waivers of some of the caps on high-cost USF support, without which they say operations would become unsustainable (CD Sept 19 p10). Adak and Windy City’s plan reflects several “assumptions,” the companies said, including high-cost support for Adak being maintained at its current interim relief levels, and high-cost support for Windy City being maintained at 70 percent of its 2011 levels. The actual transition plan was redacted in the publicly filed version. “The companies remain committed to operating as efficiently as possible in order to continue providing essential service to Adak Island, one of the most remote areas in the country,” they said.

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell leaves office expressing some concerns about work left undone, especially on rules for an incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum and media ownership reform. McDowell, a commissioner since 2006, was a surprise choice when nominated, but was viewed as a top candidate for chairman if Mitt Romney was elected president last year. Like Chairman Julius Genachowski he plans to leave Friday, leaving behind a 2-1 commission. McDowell said Tuesday his first stop will be the Hudson Institute’s Center for Economics of the Internet, where he will be a visiting fellow.

The FCC Wireline Bureau denied a petition from Sandwich Isles Communications for a waiver of certain USF and intercarrier compensation rules, said a Friday order signed by bureau Chief Julie Veach (http://bit.ly/15VqdVZ). The company “failed to show good cause for a waiver at this time,” the bureau said. A waiver would “allow it to retain a number of significant and wasteful expenses, totaling many millions of dollars, including significant payments to a number of affiliated and closely-related companies,” the order said. “Indeed, Sandwich Isles’ corporate expenses are 623 percent greater than the average for companies of similar size with the highest corporate operations expenses.” The company could restructure its operations and file a new waiver petition, the bureau said. Sandwich Isles had asked for a 10-year waiver of the FCC’s $250 per line per month cap on high-cost universal service support, the bureau said.

Reps. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Tim Griffin, R-Ark., told the FCC they were “deeply concerned” about what they called the agency’s “mismanagement” of the USF Lifeline fund, in a letter made public on Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/11QLVnt). Blackburn and Griffin asked why the commission has failed to create an eligibility database that would help “root out ineligible participants.” They also asked the FCC to say whether the alleged Boston Marathon bombers received benefits from the Lifeline program. “If the FCC isn’t able to conclusively state whether the alleged Boston Marathon bombers received Lifeline benefits, we believe the program should be frozen until there are mechanisms in place to do so,” the letter said.

Colorado is looking at multiple bills that would limit how the state regulates Internet Protocol-enabled services. One also encourages broadband deployment in under- and unserved areas. Legislators in the Colorado Senate last week introduced what they call the Rural Telecom Act of 2013, Senate Bill 287, referred to the Senate floor. That bill would exempt VoIP and IP services from the Colorado Public Utilities Commission regulation while making clear what it wouldn’t affect, such as the PUC’s “authority to regulate the implementation and provision of next-generation 911 service” (http://bit.ly/13SoU5p). The bill also authorizes the PUC to take money from the state USF to help in broadband deployment. It makes clear that the state policy toward ensuring universal service includes access to broadband, according to the text. There’s another Colorado bill, House Bill 1255, which would also exempt VoIP and IP services from PUC oversight. It passed the Colorado House in mid-April and is pending before the Senate.