The FCC Wireline Bureau denied a NASUCA request for a 30-day extension to file reply comments on USF contribution reform (http://xrl.us/bniajp). The association had sought the extension “to review and study initial comments and potentially to formulate thoughtful reply comments.” The bureau said the circumstances presented don’t warrant a delay.

The FCC will no longer provide a courtesy notice to delinquent debtors who owe money to the USF before transferring the accounts to collection, a public notice said (http://xrl.us/bniais). The change will result in a “more efficient and effective method for the collection of debts owed to the commission,” the notice said.

Allband got a three-year waiver of a new FCC rule limiting per-line USF support to $250 a month, in an order released by the Wireline Bureau Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bniaq3). The bureau said a limited waiver was necessary to ensure that consumers in the area would continue to receive voice service where there’s no terrestrial alternative. By granting Allband’s request, the bureau said it hoped “to provide it additional time to take cost-cutting and revenue-enhancing actions in order to improve its financial position and lessen its dependence on high-cost universal service support.” This is the first waiver granted in the “support reductions” category.

All three of this summer’s NARUC telecom resolutions passed the association’s telecom committee unanimously Tuesday. The resolutions will preserve state authority to tax and charge VoIP providers for state USF funds, relay service and E-911; urge the FCC to continue pursuing rural call termination issues and enforcing penalties against violators; and question the agency’s use of what the resolution says is an “arbitrary and capricious” methodology of determining USF funds. The resolution on the FCC’s methodology proved the most controversial, and faced much debate and revision in both the telecom subcommittee and committee. USTelecom voiced multiple objections based on feared delays. Objectors feared delays would result from a resolution provision demanding the FCC refer to the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service for many of its decisions (CD July 25 p8). “The FCC needs to get this [USF fund] model right,” said California Public Utilities Commissioner Catherine Sandoval. Resolution sponsor Commissioner Larry Landis of Indiana discussed USTelecom’s concerns at the Tuesday vote and said last-minute revisions had led the organization to be “satisfied” with the changes, which “may assuage the concerns of USTelecom if not all of their members.” The telecom committee clapped upon passing this third controversial resolution. Telecom Committee Chairman and Vermont Public Service Board Commissioner John Burke said voting was “smoother than usual” given the unanimity of all three votes.

Regression analysis-based caps on USF support for high-cost capital and operational expenses are already having “significant adverse effects,” even under the phased-in transition plan, representatives of The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association and Tri-County Telephone told an aide to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai Monday, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bnh62p). Business planning efforts and employee retention are being hampered, and Tri-County has had to make “trade-offs” between deploying upgraded network facilities and streamlining operations, they said. The filing asked the commission to suspend the caps and conduct testing “to confirm or deny their volatility or even their validity."

AT&T and Verizon have their own plans for developing broadband, and they don’t include accepting money from the FCC, the telcos said. AT&T rejected $48 million and Verizon $20 million of Connect America Fund (CAF) support, citing prior company strategy regarding broadband development. The Virgin Islands Telephone Co. declined the $255,000 Vitelco was allocated, saying it was unable to meet a condition for accepting the funds.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Multiple challenges emerged for the FCC at a midyear NARUC meeting. Some regulators and officials questioned USF methodology, called for Federal State Joint Board on USF referral of FCC decisions and questioned the broader direction the commission has moved on telecom in recent years. The strains have manifested in broader misgivings that some panelists discussed about the November USF/intercarrier compensation order (http://xrl.us/bnhyb7) as well as a more focused critique and controversy surrounding a quantile regression analysis for the fund.

State universal service funds vary in considerable ways, concluded the National Regulatory Research Institute (NRRI) in a new report on the topic released online Friday. NRRI submitted 10 questions to the states in a survey and heard back from 49 states as well as the District of Columbia to help in “understanding the design of the state funds and the level of funding,” which NRRI calls in its report “particularly critical” (http://xrl.us/bnhtrk). Underscored results from the NRRI report include the statistics that 43 states and the district possess “a combination of various universal service funds, including high-cost, Lifeline, schools and libraries, and other types of funds”; 21 states devote funds specifically for high-cost support; 31 states have funds for relay service; four devote funds specifically to broadband; and six states (Alabama, Delaware, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey and Tennessee) “do not have any form of funds to support telecommunications service.” The report also breaks down other elements, such as when VoIP providers contribute to state USF funds -- three states accept voluntary VoIP contributions, 10 states require contributions from all VoIP providers and 11 require contributions from only interconnected VoIP providers. NRRI recommends tailoring each state’s approach to its nature. “Each state fund must be designed individually to meet the specific needs of both the state’s constituents and its carriers,” NRRI wrote in its conclusion. “States with largely rural populations may generally design their funds to include high-cost support for carriers providing service in difficult to reach or widely dispersed areas. States with more urban populations may not need high-cost funds, and may concentrate their efforts on supporting specific goals such as broadband deployment or Lifeline services."

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The question of wither state regulation was a subtext on all the telecom panels in the initial days of the NARUC midyear meeting. State commissioners observed a declining regulatory role for years and enshrined quite clearly in legislation from the past year, as they said a recent report from the National Regulatory Research Institute (NRRI) made clear. The U.S. is in the midst of “deregulation fever,” concluded a June NRRI report on the various legislatures’ deregulation bills, which “will not subside” (CD June 19 p11). New services that draw on Internet Protocol create new challenges of definition, and regulation no longer covers them in the same way, said commissioners and staff who said they're trying to figure out their roles.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- State regulators axed the first proposed telecom resolution at their mid-year meeting. The NARUC telecom subcommittee spent much of the weekend poring over four draft resolutions, three of which passed out of staff negotiations and will now be assessed by telecom committee commissioners, and then potentially to the full NARUC board. One resolution died at its author’s wish.