The Universal Service Administrative Co. projected an end-user revenue base of $7.87 billion in Q4, which will be used to calculate the USF contribution factor. USAC collected data from 3,164 contributors who filed Form 499-Q reports and 188 non-de-minimis service providers who had previously submitted information, said a filing Friday in docket 06-122.
West Kentucky and Tennessee (WK&T) Telecommunications Cooperative CEO Karen Jackson-Furman and other witnesses plan to highlight for the House Small Business Committee their hopes for a restarted congressional working group’s bid for a USF legislative revamp (see 2507030051), according to written testimony released ahead of Wednesday's hearing on broadband deployment’s effect on rural entrepreneurs. Some urge lawmakers to continue addressing internet affordability as part of the USF revamp. Several of the witnesses also back Republicans’ bid to further ease permitting reviews of connectivity projects, including via the controversial American Broadband Deployment Act (see 2305240069). The House Small Business hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2360 Rayburn.
BEAD subgrantees will inevitably be incentivized to return to the government to seek more money to cover cost overruns, economists wrote Wednesday. But there may be ways of reducing the problem through the design of BEAD bidding processes, said Stanford Public Policy Program Director Gregory Rosston and Technology Policy Institute President Scott Wallsten. They noted that there are already signs that subgrantees are putting in unrealistically low bids with the expectation of seeking future USF support to subsidize their operations. But robust broadband competition lowers the likelihood that previously subsidized competitors will succeed in lobbying for more subsidies later, the economists said, and competition in rural areas is growing. NTIA and states "should buy time to let competition take hold before winners can come back to the trough," they said.
The FCC is seeking nominations by Oct. 20 for six positions on the Universal Service Administrative Co. board, said a Thursday notice from the Wireline Bureau. Those positions, which have three-year terms, are representatives for commercial mobile radio service providers, incumbent local exchange carriers, cable providers, state consumer advocates, and libraries and schools participating in the USF.
Small wireless provider OptimERA disputed the Alaska Remote Carrier Coalition (ARCC)'s comments about the denial of its application to serve as an eligible telecom carrier in Alaska. In a filing posted Monday in docket 23-328, the carrier disputed ARCC's claim that the application was denied because it “was too speculative and conditioned upon too many uncertain factors,” saying the Alaska regulator left open OptimERA’s status.
The FCC’s top telecom priorities include the components of Chairman Brendan Carr’s “Build America Agenda,” stabilizing USF and deregulation, agency Chief of Staff Scott Delacourt said. NTIA Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Adam Cassady said finishing BEAD "is job one," but other tasks include space policy revisions and identifying spectrum for commercialization. The two spoke Monday at Technology Policy Institute’s annual Aspen Forum.
Consumers’ Research and its allies objected Friday to the proposed USF contribution factor for Q4, citing unanswered questions from the group’s unsuccessful challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court in late June. The factor is projected to increase from 36% in Q3 to 39.3% in Q4, based on the latest projections from the Universal Service Administrative Co. (see 2508040049).
The already-high USF contribution factor is expected to rise, based on a Friday filing at the FCC by the Universal Service Administrative Co. The factor is projected to increase from 36% in Q3 to 39.3% in Q4. Congressional leaders recently relaunched a bipartisan working group to study a USF legislative revamp (see 2508010051), but experts warned Monday that addressing USF won’t be easy.
The recently relaunched bipartisan congressional working group studying a USF legislative revamp is seeking a new round of stakeholder comments about how to proceed and has opened a portal for submissions, Senate Communications Subcommittee Chair Deb Fischer, R-Neb., said Friday. Meanwhile, the Digital Progress Institute said in a white paper Thursday that USF's current contribution mechanism is “unsustainable” and “horrendously inefficient.”
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) adopted two resolutions at its Summer Policy Summit in Boston this week, calling for enhanced federal-state collaboration on telecom policy, particularly in phone number management and universal service funding. NARUC’s telecom committee passed both Monday, and the full board of directors adopted them Wednesday.