Executives from major cable operators met with FCC officials on the Universal Service Fund last week, docket 10-90 shows (http://xrl.us/bmeh8a). The industry was at the commission and on Capitol Hill to make its case against some aspects of the ILEC-backed USF and intercarrier compensation reform plan (CD Sept 22 p2). Comcast/NBCU Washington President Kyle McSlarrow told Commissioner Robert McDowell that reforming ICC should include eliminating “the disputes and controversies between voice service providers that have plagued the current regime,” said a filing posted in the docket Monday. “The Commission can accomplish this principal objective by making clear that terminating exchange access and termination under section 251(b)(5) includes the termination of voice calls to an end user or to an affiliated or unaffiliated voice provider that in turn delivers the call to a retail end user and by adopting conforming changes to the Commission’s rules.” Rules on transport and termination of voice traffic should have no effect on current deals on tandem transit services, Comcast said. Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable were among the other cable operators to lobby agency officials, filings posted to the docket late last week show.

The FCC delayed the October meeting until Oct. 27 largely at the urging of staff working on universal service/intercarrier compensation, so they'd have more time to work out the details on a final order, agency officials said. Officials said they would prefer not to let a vote slip until Nov. 30, the Wednesday after Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, state members of the Federal/State USF Joint Board are not expected to make any additional recommendations before the October meeting date and have many continuing concerns about proposals now before the agency, especially the America’s Broadband Connectivity Plan.

Cable’s lobbying against the right-of-first-refusal sections of the incumbent-backed ABC plan appears to be gaining traction at the FCC, with staff pressing incumbents with concerns about the proposals, telecom officials told us Friday. Wireless and satellite companies have also lashed out at the plan, but cable has been the most aggressive, they said. Cable has stormed Capitol Hill and the commission in the past few weeks with objections to right-of-first-refusal that would let ILECs be the first to be able to refuse USF funds and other parts of the plan (CD Sept 22 p2). “It’s definitely on the radar screen at the commission, as an issue,” a telecom lobbyist said.

Google said there’s enough consensus on Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation system reform that the FCC should move forward quickly. “There is broad support in the record for targeted accountability measures on USF support, including build-out and reporting obligations,” the company said in an ex parte notice (http://xrl.us/bmd6yd). “Requiring accountability will help ensure that subsidies are well spent and assist in preventing waste, as well as fraud and abuse.” The FCC must also take care, as it reforms intercarrier compensation, that “the enormous capabilities of IP networks” are “not shoehorned into the limited functionality of TDM,” Google said in the letter posted to docket 10-90. “Although many of the parties diverge on the specifics, there is widespread agreement on many key points,” it said. “Google respectfully urges that the extensive base of record support provides a solid foundation for the FCC to move forward with an orderly transition of USF and ICC to create the next generation of networks and services for all Americans."

Experts were divided on what kind of impact a government shutdown would have on the pending universal service and intercarrier compensation regime reforms. House Republican leaders have promised to avoid a shutdown after a continuing resolution was surprisingly defeated Wednesday. But the threat of a shutdown was enough to make some wonder whether it would keep the FCC from acting on universal service by October’s meeting. “It definitely puts the timetable at risk,” Aspen Institute’s Blair Levin said of a potential shutdown. “The debate is literally just starting. Universal service, the details matter so much.” Public Knowledge Legal Director Harold Feld said the impact might be “a wash.” He told us in an email: “The short answer is: I think delay works to the advantage of those trying to mobilize opposition to the ABC plan. On the other hand, if there is a shut down for any extended period, it will make it very hard to get members of Congress (who are the chief point of leverage at this point) engaged on this issue.” But MF Global analyst Paul Gallant said he didn’t think a shutdown would affect anyone’s lobbying position. “A shutdown might push back a final FCC vote, but I doubt it would prevent the Commission from getting to USF this fall,” he said: “There’s just been too much invested by too many parties to get to this point.”

Customer subsidies for universal access to telephone and broadband must provide results at a reasonable cost and more accountability for “the companies that stand to gain,” wrote Simon Ffitch, consumer advocate member of the Federal/State USF Joint Board, in a Seattle Times op-ed. The ABC Plan is contrary to a major goal of the Universal Service Fund revamp -- to ease the burden that customers pay to support the system, he said. The plan would eliminate the states’ authority over consumer protection and to act as watchdogs over the use of funds, he said. The FCC doesn’t have the resources to effectively take over these functions for all the states, he said. The ABC Plan also made no real commitment to make broadband available to unserved and underserved communities, he said.

Making wireless broadband “ubiquitous” in the U.S. will cost $7.8 billion to $21 billion “in initial investment alone,” underscoring the need for a “robust and ongoing” Mobility Fund as the FCC reforms the Universal Service Fund, CTIA said in a letter to the FCC. The report comes at a critical time, with the FCC expected to take up a USF revamp plan at its Oct. 27 meeting, though Chairman Julius Genachowski indicated Thursday that vote may not come off as expected. America’s Broadband Connectivity (ABC) plan, submitted by major carriers, would allocate only $300 million a year to the Mobility Fund for wireless build-out. CTIA is not expected to release a more detailed estimate of the optimum size of a Mobility Fund, an industry official said.

Cable advocates have taken their fight against the right-of-first-refusal provisions in America’s Broadband Connectivity plan to Capitol Hill, hoping to keep Congress from supporting the incumbent-backed plan, NCTA Executive Vice President James Assey told us Wednesday. President Michael Powell and Comcast/NBC Universal Washington President Kyle McSlarrow have been pressing their cases on the Hill. The goal is to keep legislators from signing incumbent-circulated letters to the FCC supporting the ABC plan, he said.

The FCC and small and mid-sized wireless carriers are headed to court in November in a case that examines whether the agency acted improperly in a December order that redirected high-cost Universal Service Fund money to a fund that will pay for broadband buildout (CD Jan 4 p2). The carriers challenging the order complain that while the reserved funds may ultimately be used for broadband, the commission does not place them under one of the four existing USF programs. Oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is scheduled for Nov. 15 in Rural Cellular Association v. FCC.

The FCC must ensure sufficient funding for broadband adoption programs as it revamps the Universal Service Fund, Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., said in a letter circulating on Capitol Hill Tuesday. “A truly complete USF program would include adequate funding to bring critical programs, like broadband adoption initiatives modeled after the Lifeline and Link Up, into the broadband era,” Matsui said. Matsui plans to send the letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski as early as Friday, a Matsui spokeswoman said. “In today’s economy, the internet has become a necessity, not a luxury,” Matsui wrote. “We must do more to promote subscribership through adoption programs.” Many don’t subscribe because they lack the “necessary equipment, training or education opportunities to take advantage of the benefits of Internet use,” Matsui said. Others can’t afford “even basic broadband service,” she said.