FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he’s “working hard” on Lifeline USF modernization with Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and hopes to bring an order forward quickly, but he declined to discuss any details at his press conference after the commission meeting Thursday. Wheeler has said he and Clyburn agree Lifeline support rules should be overhauled to cover broadband and further combat abuse and fraud, goals that fellow Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel endorsed (see 1602050066). Clyburn has said the FCC plans to act on Lifeline this quarter and informed sources say the agency might vote on an item at its March 31 meeting. The FCC Thursday released a Lifeline recommendation unanimously approved Feb. 5 by its Consumer Advisory Committee. The panel recommended: Lifeline not be subjected to a “spending cap or restrictive budget” that curtails service to eligible low-income consumers; eligibility verification be handled by “third party administrator(s)”; the FCC “promote competition and ensure robust consumer choice,” including for persons with disabilities; and the commission “improve Lifeline enrollment and outreach through collaboration with community based organizations and anchor institutions and coordination with the federal anti-poverty programs including establishment of automated enrollment procedures, with priority attention paid to the programs conferring Lifeline eligibility.” Free Press and New America’s Open Technology Institute also urged FCC officials not to impose a spending cap or a budget and supported implementing minimum service standards, said a Free Press filing posted Wednesday in docket 11-42. Noting calls to expand the scope of Lifeline providers beyond eligible telecom carriers, the groups also suggested the FCC could make the ETC definition more inclusive rather than depart from the ETC process. The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council backed eliminating or streamlining the ETC process for Lifeline to increase market competition in the program, said a filing by the group summarizing meetings at the agency. In a letter, the National Tribal Telecommunications Association urged the FCC to keep and increase the enhanced tribal Lifeline credit. The Federal Register published an FCC notice saying the Office of Management and Budget approved for three years the information-collection requirements in a June order making some Lifeline administrative changes (see 1506180029).
A draft FCC order to revamp rural carrier USF mechanisms is circulating, commission officials confirmed Wednesday, declining to offer details. The draft order had been expected as some stakeholders made progress toward an agreement with key commission officials (see 1602040055 and 1602080050). FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Mike O'Rielly have been consulting with rural telco groups on making broadband-oriented changes to update legacy rate-of-return USF mechanisms and provide carriers with a new alternative based on a cost model.
The FCC is addressing universal service accounting issues, Chief Financial Officer Mark Stephens said in the agency's FY 2015 Summary of Performance & Financial Information released Tuesday. An independent auditor in FY 2014 identified a "continuing material weakness in the control environment over USF budgetary accounting," Stephens said. He said that material weakness resulted from the USF budgetary activities of the Universal Service Administrative Co. "The accounting errors that the auditors noted above were corrected by USAC and the FCC and do not affect the Commission’s FY 2015 financial statements," Stephens said. "However, the auditors noted that corrections need to be made to USAC’s processes and internal controls to avoid these types of errors from recurring in the future. The FCC will work with USAC to ensure that USAC takes the proper corrective action to resolve these recommendations and strengthen its internal controls." He also said the FCC was "committed to remediating information technology control deficiencies" and was moving to address a "noncompliance" finding about the Debt Collection Improvement Act.
The FCC improved administrative efficiency and advanced policy goals last year, Chairman Tom Wheeler said in the agency's FY 2015 Annual Performance Report released Thursday. "We are making decisions faster, improving speed of disposal on routine matters, expanding electronic filing and distribution, decreasing backlogs, and improving responsiveness to consumers," Wheeler said. On policy, he said FCC decisions continue to "help American consumers, enhance U.S. competitiveness, and improve our innovation economy." He highlighted FCC actions to make more spectrum available for broadband, uphold net neutrality, revamp USF subsidy mechanisms, approve AT&T's buy of DirecTV with conditions, help the disabled use communications technologies and protect consumers from unwanted phone calls. The report said the commission met its speed of disposal (SOD) goals 98 percent of the time, processing 853,415 applications and complaints in FY 2015. The Office of Engineering and Technology led with a 99.9 percent SOD success rate, followed by the Wireline Bureau at 99.3 percent. Wheeler said the commission adopted an Enforcement Bureau "modernization plan" to concentrate "reduced" resources where they're needed the most, in "areas with the greatest spectrum density." The plan "refocuses field staff on the resolution of public safety and other interference issues. Once implemented, this plan will save millions of dollars annually. We will apply these savings to modernize the equipment used by the field so they can handle the interference issues in the new shared spectrum environment," he said. On the controversial scaling back and closure of Enforcement Bureau field offices, the report said the bureau, Office of Managing Director and "expert outside consultants conducted a thorough, data-driven analysis of the agency’s field operations to maximize the effectiveness of those operations, align them to the overall mission and priorities of the FCC, improve equipment and advanced technologies for field agents, and ensure the most efficient use of the agency’s resources." A Communications Daily Special Report: "Portrait of the FCC in a Partisan Era" said some believe unauthorized "pirate" radio operations are flouting rules because the scaled-back bureau downgraded the importance of such interference enforcement (see 1512150014). As discussed elsewhere in the Special Report (see 1512150040), some bureaus lagged FCC goals by not keeping backlogs low. Last fiscal year, the new report said, the Media Bureau met SOD goals 85 percent of the time, and the International Bureau 76 percent, though the latter's performance was affected by consultations with the executive branch over foreign ownership.
With panels on some of the major telecom concerns, NARUC’s upcoming winter committee meetings will offer some robust discussion, commissioners told us in interviews Thursday. The telecom committee panels Feb. 14-17 coincide with some active proceedings at the FCC, as well, NARUC members said, with topics including Lifeline, carrier of last resort (COLR) and enabling competition in a broadband world, the agenda shows. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai is expected to speak at a general session about the commission pre-empting state laws on municipal broadband, net neutrality and inmate calling.
The FCC provided a more detailed breakdown of the FY 2017 administration budget request that described the specific agency needs in terms of IT and HQ relocation. The 141-page document laid out why it saw the need for its $358.29 million budget request, a total that included $16.87 million for agency HQ relocation or restacking and including information beyond what the administration initially made available Tuesday (see 1602090067).
The Telecom Act ushered in Internet innovation and growth even though it didn’t fully anticipate market developments, said some who helped draft the legislation that became law 20 years ago. Congress didn’t get all the details right, but the 1996 act created a strong competitive framework that was flexible enough to undergird huge investment in communications networks and Internet applications, panelists said at a Tuesday discussion hosted by the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy.
The FCC would reduce rural telcos’ rate of return from 11.25 percent to 9.75 percent over six years under a USTelecom and NTCA proposal to revamp USF mechanisms for broadband coverage. The groups also proposed broadband buildout obligations requiring RLECs to reach up to 80 percent of unserved locations over five years and a screen for phasing out USF support in high-cost areas where unsubsidized competitors reach 85 percent of locations, said a filing posted Monday in docket 10-90. It summarized a meeting last week with senior FCC officials, including Chairman Tom Wheeler. NTCA, WTA and individual RLECs made separate filings citing concerns and offering proposals. Wheeler is said to be interested in circulating a draft order soon (see 1602040055).
A court granted the request of Assist Wireless and others to dismiss their challenge to an FCC Oklahoma map decision that will restrict the scope of areas where carriers are eligible for enhanced tribal Lifeline USF support. The brief order Friday of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissing Assist Wireless v. FCC (No. 15-1324) came days after the FCC gave Lifeline providers a 120-day extension -- from Feb. 9 to June 8 -- on implementing the map's tribal-related boundaries (see 1602030027), which itself came days after Assist Wireless filed its dismissal motion (see 1601290066).
CenturyLink and USTelecom sought to back AT&T's challenge to FCC decisions declining to remove price-cap telco "eligible telecom carrier" obligations to offer voice service in high-cost areas where they no longer receive USF subsidies under a broadband-oriented Connect America Fund (see 1601110036). "The result is an unfunded mandate," CenturyLink said in a Thursday motion for leave to intervene filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which is reviewing the case (AT&T v. FCC, No. 16-1002). USTelecom's motion said AT&T is challenging an FCC order issued in response to a USTelecom forbearance petition (see 1512170052). Meanwhile, Bruce Kushnick of the New Networks Institute said the FCC based much of its USTelecom forbearance order "on biased and manipulated information or else major facts were totally ignored." In a filing posted Thursday in docket 14-192, the institute asked the commission to investigate "the data used in this and every related FCC order." Kushnick alleged major telcos have manipulated their accounting to gain regulatory advantages (see 1512230049).