High-cost loop support got a major overhaul Wednesday, in an order designed to fix “problematic incentives and inequitable distribution of support” (http://xrl.us/bm49qi). The FCC Wireline Bureau order fleshed out the details of 2011’s commission-level USF/intercarrier compensation order, which set out a framework for reform. About 100 study areas with “very high costs relative to similarly situated peers” will see a total reduction in support of $65 million, the bureau said, and the reduction will be phased in between July 1 and 2014. “By delaying the full impact of the reductions until 2014, we provide companies who would be adversely affected adequate time to make adjustments and, if necessary, demonstrate that a waiver is warranted either to correct inaccurate boundary information and/or to ensure that consumers in the area continue to receive voice service,” the order said. The bureau expects about 500 study areas to receive $55 million to fund new broadband investment.

The Alaska Rural Coalition’s assertion that the USF/intercarrier compensation order treats remote Alaska competitive eligible telecom carriers more favorably than remote Alaska ILECs “is pure rubbish,” General Communication said Monday in a letter to the FCC (http://xrl.us/bm4yr9). “ARC simply does not want to compete -- and wants to be paid USF support for not doing so,” GCI said. ARC had requested reconsideration of the order’s “unintended consequence” of “disparate high cost support and regulation” between direct competitors. “The two year delay afforded all CETCs provides a competitive advantage to GCI in the local market while at the same time GCI can and will price its local telephone service as cheaply as necessary to capture customers and the associated high cost support,” ARC said in a letter Thursday (http://xrl.us/bm4ys4).

It’s important for the FCC to correct some data input “errors” in the regression analysis impact calculations for West River Telephone and Kennebec Telephone, wrote both of South Dakota’s Senators and South Dakota’s House member on Friday (http://xrl.us/bm4vdv). “While the individual errors and support reductions for these companies may appear insignificant in relation to the overall FCC analysis, the loss of over $500,000 is significant to these companies.” Both companies stand to lose their USF support due to the incorrect data inputs, said Sens. John Thune, R, Tim Johnson, D, and Rep. Kristi Noem, R.

The one-per-household limit, commissioning biennial audits and verifying the residency of customers at temporary addresses were some of the new rules criticized in the eight petitions for reconsideration of the Lifeline order received by the FCC. Oppositions to the petitions are due May 7 in docket 11-42, replies May 15, said a notice in Friday’s Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bm4kwc).

The Senate Agriculture Committee unveiled a fresh Farm Bill Friday, including $50 million per year for the Rural Broadband Loan Program operated by the Rural Utilities Service. Congress must pass a Farm Bill every five years -- the current law expires at the end of 2012. Also last week, Agriculture Committee member Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, introduced the Connecting Rural America Act, which would reauthorize the program but provide only $20 million annually. Rural telecom companies hailed the Brown bill, aimed at further expanding broadband access to small, remote, and high poverty communities.

The Alaska Rural Coalition and its member Ketchikan Public Utilities made “mistaken factual assertions” in recent filings in support of its request for reconsideration of various aspects of the USF/intercarrier compensation fund, General Communication said Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bm4h4h). “ARC has either failed to present accurate facts or has applied an unfounded interpretation of how the urban local rate floor would apply to GCI,” the telco wrote. GCI said neither its tariffed wireline basic local service rate nor the local component of its “No Limits” bundle falls below the local urban rate benchmarks. If a rate floor is applied to a competitive eligible telecom carrier, as ARC suggests, there would be no reason to continue to pay full support to the ILECs because “any other rule would create the anomalous result of paying one competitor more in USF support because they failed to lower their rates to meet the competition,” GCI said. GCI also took issue with assertions that the order provides for “identical support” to CETCs, and that ARC’s proposal for a two-year delay in implementation of RLEC reforms in Alaska would be “budget neutral."

Big Bend Telephone Co. filed its 2011 audited financial statements as supplemental support for its petition for waiver (CD April 6 p1) of certain USF rules limiting reimbursable support (http://xrl.us/bm4hc3). Big Bend requested confidential treatment of the 56-page financial statement.

The Ad Hoc Coalition of International Telecommunications Companies supports USTelecom’s call for long-term, comprehensive changes to the FCC USF contribution system, the group said in a letter to the agency Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bm4ha3). The group, which includes several domestic and foreign long distance service providers, called out the “Carrier’s Carrier Rule” as “one of several irrational and inefficient processes in need of immediate reform.

The “dust has not even started to settle” on the “sweeping reforms” adopted in the USF/intercarrier compensation order, and the FCC should answer the many pending questions carriers have with respect to implementation before making additional changes, the NTCA told an advisor to Chairman Julius Genachowski on Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bm4g9j). NTCA also expressed concern with rural call completion issues, urging the FCC to take action. “These problems are unlikely to be resolved unless and until a provider that has failed materially and repeatedly to route calls to destinations as sought by originating callers faces some consequence for such failures,” the association said. Its representatives also met with Wireline Bureau officials Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bm4g96) to request changes to financial reporting requirements, raise concerns about conditions needed to be met to grant waiver requests, and discuss the “inequitable and improper” elimination of safety net additive support for carriers which deployed broadband-capable networks in 2010 and 2011. NTCA reiterated its continuing concern about the use of a regression analysis to establish caps on USF-supported capital and operating expenses.

Some state legislators and foes of a California bill to ban state regulation over VoIP worried the proposal would strip away consumer protection of basic services, they said during a hearing Tuesday. SB-1611 sponsor Sen. Alex Padilla (D) emphasized that the bill wouldn’t change existing consumer protection regulation. The bill passed the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee, which Padilla chairs, and is heading to the Senate Appropriations Committee.