Fifteen small rural telcos would lose almost $9 million in annual USF subsidies under preliminary FCC findings to phase out support where carriers completely overlap with unsubsidized broadband competitors. A Wireline Bureau public notice posted Wednesday in docket 10-90 sought comments by Aug. 28 and replies by Sept. 28 on the initial determinations.
The FCC order approving AT&T’s takeover of DirecTV was released Tuesday, laying out the conditions it imposed. The 241-page order includes 59 pages of "merger simulation model" analysis and 17 pages of conditions that appear to track commission descriptions over the last week (see 1507210078, 1507220076, 1507230059, 1507240055 and 1507270074) but with more specifics. For instance, while the conditions generally last four years, if AT&T doesn’t complete a required fiber buildout within that time frame, all the conditions will remain in effect until it does. In addition, if the FCC finds AT&T has violated any conditions, it can extend the terms of such conditions for two years.
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives plans a public hearing at 1 p.m. on Aug. 24 for HB-1417, which creates a freestanding act maintaining the state's Universal Service Fund. The Rural Telephone Access and Availability Act would extend the life of the Pennsylvania USF until 2022.
The FCC urged a federal court to put off consideration of an AT&T challenge to a December commission order on price-cap telco USF obligations, pending further regulatory action on related issues in other proceedings. Granting an FCC motion to hold the case in abeyance will allow regulators to address the issues raised by AT&T, which could obviate the need for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to adjudicate the case, or at least may alter its review, the agency said in a reply to the court on its motion in AT&T v. FCC, No. 15-1038. AT&T opposed the motion and said there was no reason for delay. The D.C. Circuit recently suspended its briefing schedule in the case while it considers the FCC motion (see 1507160032). AT&T is challenging the December order because, among other things, it relieved price-cap carriers of only some statewide USF obligations -- not all, as AT&T requested -- to provide voice support in high-cost areas where they would no longer be subsidized under the FCC's broadband-oriented Connect America Fund Phase II overhaul. The FCC said it had made "unequivocal statements that it has yet to decide any of the issues" underlying AT&T's challenge. "The FCC has not yet taken any final, reviewable action relevant to this case," the agency said. The commission noted its Wireline Bureau issued a public notice Thursday listing census blocks where price-cap telcos still have federal high-cost voice duties and seeking comment on related pending issues in various proceedings. The FCC also noted it has a Jan. 4 statutory deadline to finish a proceeding in which it is "actively considering the arguments at issue here." The D.C. Circuit should reject AT&T's attempt to "bypass ordinary administrative procedures and involve the Court in agency decisionmaking that is not yet complete," the agency said.
Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry lauded the Senate Appropriations Committee’s FCC funding package for FY 2016 due to its provisions on wireless. The funding bill “includes important language to maintain certainty for wireless carriers that receive USF support,” Berry said in a statement. “The FCC’s [USF] order called to maintain USF support until an adequate replacement mechanism is available.” The bill would ensure “the FCC stays on this path, providing certainty to wireless carriers that current support amounts will be available until a sufficient Mobility Fund Phase II is operational,” he said. “This will help maintain necessary economic, health, public safety, educational and civic engagement opportunities in high cost areas.” Appropriations Committee Democrats blasted the mobile broadband provisions of the appropriations measure, which proved divisive on several fronts and passed the committee despite strong Democratic opposition (see 1507230061). Senate appropriators posted the Financial Services bill text and accompanying report Friday for the first time.
Hughes Network Systems rolled out services and hardware aimed at the K-16 education market, including high-speed satellite Internet access for rural and remote schools and managed Wi-Fi for guest access, campus broadband, distance learning and digital signage, the satellite company said in a Tuesday news release. Some of its offerings are eligible for government funding through the E-rate USF program, Hughes said.
Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., on Monday pressed for regular order to tackle what she considers problems with federal agencies. The Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee scheduled a markup of its FCC funding bill for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday in 138 Dirksen, as expected (see 1507140069), a spokeswoman for Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., told us Monday.
The FCC Wireline Bureau invited nominations by Aug. 17 to occupy 12 board seats on Universal Service Administrative Co., a public notice in docket 96-45 said Thursday. Board members have fiduciary duties to protect the interests of USAC -- which administers USF programs for the FCC -- consistent with federal and state laws. The list includes six seats with terms that expired Dec. 31, 2013, and six that expired Dec. 31, 2014, but all but one of the seats are currently filled, the PN said. The FCC already solicited and received nominations for the first six but is seeking any new nominations to refresh the record, while it's seeking nominations for the second six for the first time. The slots to be filled are for representatives of Bell operating company ILECs, non-Bell ILECs with less than $40 million in annual revenues, libraries eligible for E-rate discounts, state consumer advocates, mobile wireless providers, cable operators, schools eligible for E-rate discounts (two slots), low-income consumers, CLECs, rural healthcare providers eligible to receive USF support and interexchange carriers with annual operating revenue of $3 billion or less.
A federal court took a short timeout from its briefing schedule so it can consider an FCC motion to suspend substantive judicial review of an AT&T challenge to a commission order on price-cap telco USF duties, pending regulatory action on related issues in other proceedings. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Thursday granted an FCC request to file the motion to hold the case in abeyance and the court suspended its current briefing schedule. The court didn't rule on the FCC motion to hold the case in abeyance, which already has been submitted. In its motion, the FCC noted that AT&T and others in August had asked the FCC to relieve price-cap carriers of eligible telecom carrier (ETC) obligations to serve rural areas where they would no longer be subsidized if they elected to receive USF support under the agency’s Connect America Fund Phase II overhaul of the high-cost program. AT&T and others also had urged the FCC to permit, but no longer require, high-cost ETCs to participate in the Lifeline USF program subsidizing low-income telecom consumers. Separately, in October, USTelecom petitioned the FCC to forbear from applying related high-cost and Lifeline rules. The FCC in December partially granted USTelecom’s petition, relieving price-cap carriers of their ETC duty to offer voice service in census blocks determined to be “low-cost,” served by an unsubsidized competitor, or where a competing ETC is receiving USF support to deploy fixed broadband/voice networks. AT&T then challenged the FCC order in the D.C. Circuit, arguing it didn't provide enough relief and was arbitrary and capricious (AT&T v. FCC, No. 15-1038). But the commission motion said that the agency made clear in December it wasn’t addressing all the issues raised in USTelecom’s petition or by commenters in the high-cost and Lifeline proceedings -- all three of which remain open. The FCC thus asked the court to hold the case in abeyance until (a) the agency finalizes its USTelecom forbearance review -- which must occur by Jan. 4 -- or earlier if it acts on the high-cost and Lifeline issues AT&T is targeting; and (b) AT&T petitions for review of the resulting orders, assuming it does so. The FCC said its prospective actions in the open proceedings could moot or alter AT&T’s current challenge, and even if they don’t, it made more sense for the court to consider all the issues at one time, rather than piecemeal. AT&T Tuesday opposed the FCC motion. “There is no reason for delay,” the telco said. “At bottom the FCC promulgated a rule it knows it cannot defend,” AT&T said. “That the FCC might, in a future order, grant AT&T relief from [unlawful] obligations is no reason to hold the case in abeyance.”
USTelecom is calling on the Wireline Bureau to tightly control its E-rate USF support program as it implements FCC changes allowing schools and libraries to self-provision fiber/broadband networks in certain circumstances. The bureau should confirm that school and library self-provisioning “should be the option of last resort” and take other steps to ensure proper E-rate funding allocation, including through continued use of copper phone networks, USTelecom said in reply comments filed last week in docket 13-184 on a proposed list of services eligible for E-rate discounts.