The November 2011 FCC USF order cost a rural Texas telco more than $500,000 in support, the company said. Hill Country Telephone Cooperative asked the Texas Public Utilities Commission for money from the state’s USF this fall to make up for the loss. “I've been in telecom for 34 years, and I find these days the most challenging of my career,” Hill Country General Manager Delbert Wilson told us. “This whole [FCC] transformation order has filled our industry with chaos and uncertainty."

The FCC should put off for the time being any decision on a Cordova Wireless petition for a waiver of Section 54.307(e) of the FCC’s USF rules, which establishes a methodology for determining support for competitive eligible telecommunications carriers starting Jan. 1, said Copper Valley Wireless (CVW) in comments filed at the agency. The Wireless Bureau sought comment on the waiver request Oct. 11 and replies are due Wednesday. “Copper Valley Wireless provides service to much of the same areas as Cordova Wireless,” the carrier said (http://xrl.us/bn3qxo). “Simply stated, Cordova is not the only company that is operating in the harsh environment of Prince William Sound. Communications companies operating in Alaska provide service to customers in some of the most remote and challenging areas in the country. CVW faces challenges equal to those faced by Cordova with regard to factors including sparse population, lack of highway infrastructure, and topography and climactic conditions.” Copper Valley said it’s likely to seek a waiver if it’s unable to obtain ongoing support through upcoming commission proceedings aimed at reforming wireless USF. “But, we believe it more appropriate to allow the Commission to complete its scheduled work on this matter. However, if the Commission should grant the waiver requested by Cordova Wireless, CVW will be submitting its own waiver request in order to remain competitive and provide a choice to the residents in the region."

When AT&T asked the FCC this month to launch a proceeding on the transition from time-division multiplexing to Internet Protocol networks (CD Nov 8 p11), the telco worked “very consciously” to avoid instigating a partisan battle, said James Cicconi, AT&T senior executive vice president, at a Brookings Institution panel Tuesday on broadband as a catalyst for the digital economy (http://xrl.us/bn3r2d). Panelists called for a rethinking of the FCC’s power to review mergers, changes to the USF system, and agency acknowledgment of the legitimacy of wireless service as a substitute for wired broadband.

New Mexico has become the 36th state where Assurance Wireless will bring its Lifeline Assistance Program benefits. Assurance offers a wireless phone, 250 free voice minutes and 250 free text messages to eligible residents, parent company Sprint Nextel said Monday (http://xrl.us/bn3mag). There are 55,000 jobless New Mexicans, and 30 percent are below the poverty line, it said. Eligibility varies by state, according to Assurance Wireless, which said people in New Mexico can apply if eligible for other programs including Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, General Assistance, Federal Public Housing Assistance or the national free lunch program. Applicants can also demonstrate low income other ways, it said. The federal USF supports Assurance’s services.

Dell Telephone Cooperative will have to provide more information if it wants a waiver of several USF rules, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a letter Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bn2tvg). Bureau Chief Julie Veach posed 11 questions requesting additional details on employee salaries, marketable securities, life insurance and patronage refunds. “The Bureau needs to better understand Dell’s operations” to determine whether “good cause” exists to grant the waivers, it said. The West Texas co-op seeks a waiver of the $250 per line per month cap, the rule limiting reimbursable capital and operating expenses applied to high-cost loop support (HCLS), and rules limiting recovery of corporate operations expenses applied to HCLS and interstate common line support (CD July 12 p7).

Arguing the FCC lacks statutory authority to transition intercarrier compensation (ICC) rates to zero, ILEC intervenors asked the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday to vacate the 2011 USF/ICC order in its entirety. But the court won’t decide the fate of the order anytime soon, as the FCC’s brief in support of the order isn’t due until spring, said attorney Greg Vogt, who represents the National Exchange Carrier Association and worked on the brief. Until then, “the FCC’s order is effective and it’s moving onward and it’s harming rural telephone companies and their customers right now,” he said. Another telecom lawyer and an executive told us the rules are hurting ILECs, and will continue to for at least another year, until the 10th Circuit decides the case.

Opening briefs were due Monday in the Supreme Court case Arlington, Texas, et al. v. FCC, which will take a hard look at the Chevron doctrine and federal agencies’ ability to determine their jurisdiction. The court took up the question Oct. 5, raising questions about how the FCC exerts its authority (CD Oct 12 p1). Petitioners include the city of Arlington and San Antonio, Texas, Los Angeles, San Diego and the Texas Coalition for Utilities Issues. The petitioners have attracted significant support among state advocates. The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners adopted a resolution Nov. 13 in support of the petitioners (CD Nov 14 p5) and NARUC is now one among many state advocates speaking up.

Efforts to expand broadband adoption in Dickey Rural telco’s rural service area are “being jeopardized” by USF and intercarrier compensation reforms that have “significantly and surprisingly curtailed the amount of high cost universal service support that DRTC reasonably expected to receive,” the telco told FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and aides to commissioners Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, an ex parte filing said. The commission’s elimination of Safety Net Additive support is of particular concern, causing a loss of $1.68 million over the next five years, Dickey said. The North Dakota telco offers free Internet classes to its customers to encourage broadband adoption, and participates in the Rural PC Project, a joint project with NTCA and Microsoft, to provide affordable computers to rural customers, it said. But the telco may have to limit these efforts to expand broadband adoption because of cuts in USF, it said. “Due to the FCC’s extremely onerous waiver process and uncertainty regarding any favorable outcome, there is no viable avenue by which to obtain any relief,” the company said.

In an otherwise routine order Friday clarifying some requirements of the November 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order and tweaking others, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel issued a separate statement suggesting simplifications to the “extremely” complex reforms. She worries that the complexity of the order, and the benchmarks that shift annually, could make life difficult for telcos that want to invest in their networks. “I fear that this complexity can deny rural carriers dependent on them the certainty they need to confidently invest in their network infrastructure,” Rosenworcel wrote. “So when opportunities arise to simplify our rules in a manner that is fiscally sound, good for investment, and good for rural consumers -- I think we should seize them."

The FCC should deny attempts to rescind the Tribal Government Engagement Obligation Provisions developed during the agency’s work on USF reform, the National Broadband Plan and the Connect America Fund, the National Congress of American Indians of the U.S. (NCAI) said Tuesday in an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bnznyn). The filing occurred after the NCAI adopted a resolution Oct. 26 encouraging the FCC to uphold the Tribal Engagement Provisions, which the FCC’s Office of Native Affairs developed in connection with the Wireline and Wireless bureaus (http://xrl.us/bnznyt). The FCC developed the provisions “with the intent of improving the deployment of telecommunications services on tribal lands,” NCAI President Jefferson Keel said in the filing. The NCAI grew concerned after USTelecom filed a petition that requested reconsideration and clarification of the provisions. NCAI, Native Public Media, the Gila River Indian Community and Gila River Telecommunications filed replies in opposition to the USTelecom petition (CD Sept 28 p6). “Any rescission of the Tribal Engagement Provisions would be an unfortunate set-back in the progress needed to bring digital communications to this country’s least connected peoples and lands,” Keel said Tuesday in the NCAI filing.