The House Commerce Committee has asked the FCC for “more targeted data” on the Universal Service Fund. The request came in a letter to Chairman Julius Genachowski, signed by Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and telecom subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. Wednesday’s letter continues a years’ long tradition by the committee, seeking data on USF. It asks for state-by-state and company-by-company lists of who got what and for how much money.

The record developed by the FCC makes clear that SMS is an information service and carriers should not have to pay into the Universal Service Fund based on SMS revenue, CTIA said in reply comments. The Wireline Bureau asked for comments on the topic, in response to an April 26 letter from the Universal Service Administrative Co. seeking guidance on the reporting of text messaging revenues for purposes of the USF.

The New York Senate passed legislation that would prevent state regulation of VoIP services. The bill, introduced by GOP Sen. George Maziarz, might not be going anywhere because the state Assembly session ended Monday, his legislative aide told us. Maziarz is working with the Assembly to try to pass the bill in potential extended session, the aide said. S-5769 passed Monday.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sent the White House a letter asking President Barack Obama to nominate Ajit Pai for the Republican seat on the FCC vacated by Meredith Baker. Industry and government officials we spoke with Friday said Pai is likely to be nominated and should face a relatively easy time being confirmed, barring unforeseen complications. Pai’s nomination is likely to be paired with that of Jessica Rosenworcel, an aide to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.Rosenworcel is expected to be the nominee to replace Democrat Michael Copps on the commission. Copps must leave the FCC when the current session of Congress ends.

CHICAGO -- The FCC’s overhaul of the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation system may take a little longer than had previously been anticipated, an aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski said at the Cable Show in Chicago. Finishing an order on the subjects may take until the fall, said Sherrese Smith, who advises Genachowski on media issues. “I'm only talking about a month or two delay,” not a longer period of time, she told us during a Q-and-A Wednesday. She also said an item on program carriage will be out soon.

Some rural carriers want policymakers to address problems with the existing Universal Service Fund Lifeline program before transitioning it to broadband as proposed in a bill (HR-2163) introduced Tuesday (CD June 14 p6) by Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif. The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association supports the “idea” of helping low-income households get broadband, but government should tighten control of the fund before expanding it, said NTCA Senior Vice President Mike Romano in an interview Tuesday. Expanding the Lifeline program should not reduce money for the high-cost program to bring broadband to rural areas, Romano said. Taking away high-cost money could cancel out the effects of expanding Lifeline because, without high-cost subsidies, rural carriers might be forced to raise prices, he said. A new addition this year to Matsui’s USF bill prohibiting duplicate Lifeline awards to a single household is a “good starting point,” but the FCC ultimately will determine how it’s enforced, Romano said. The Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance also cautioned government not to forget rural areas as it tries to improve broadband adoption. “ITTA supports efforts to increase current low broadband adoption rates among many Americans living in urban and rural America,” ITTA President Genevieve Morelli said in a statement. “However, in many parts of rural America consumers lack the basic broadband infrastructure required to take advantage of broadband adoption programs.”

CHICAGO -- Some House Commerce Committee members are skeptical of the need for AllVid rules the FCC has been aiming to propose, its Republican counsel said. The rulemaking notice being worked on by the commission doesn’t seem likely to be finished soon, said an aide to Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass. Both aides, who spoke at the Cable Show Tuesday, said an earlier panel demonstrated that cable operators and programmers are trying to make content more accessible to subscribers. (See separate story in this issue.)

Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., plans Tuesday to reintroduce her broadband adoption legislation to create a USF Lifeline program subsidizing high-speed service for low-income Americans, a Matsui spokeswoman said. Matsui is a member of the House Communications Subcommittee. This year’s bill is largely the same as HR-3646 from the 111th Congress, but adds a provision to prevent duplication of subsidies. The bill may have to overcome concerns about government spending and balancing support to urban and rural areas.

The disparate lobbying on Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime reform has continued even as industry-wide consensus building talks press on. Last week, executives from mid-sized carriers CenturyLink, Frontier and Windstream joined an analyst from CostQuest on a conference call with commission staff to lobby on Universal Service Fund reform, CenturyLink said in an ex parte notice released Monday in docket 10-90. The telco executives urged “immediate adoption of reforms that would redistribute ongoing support within price cap carriers’ areas based on cost conditions in individual wire centers, rather than costs averaged across study areas or entire states,” the ex parte said. “We also explained how a regression analysis could enable prompt identification of the relative costs to serve price cap carriers’ individual wire centers,” the ex parte said. CostQuest has recently been retained to help industry come up with cost models as companies and trade associations try to come up with an industry endorsed universal service reform package (CD June 6 p1).

Finishing public safety network legislation before Sept. 11 will be a challenge, said Senate GOP aides at an event Thursday hosted by Politico and Microsoft. The Senate Commerce Committee approved the spectrum bill (CD June 9 p2) by Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, on Wednesday. But the bill must still get floor time in the Senate and win over House Commerce Committee Republicans who are skeptical of giving away the 700 MHz D-block for free to public safety, the aides said. Also at the event, an FCC aide provided an update on the agency’s work revamping the Universal Service Fund.