Nebraska Public Service Commission staff recommend changes to state USF reverse auctions to “better incentive participation,” said Telecom Director Cullen Robbins at a partially virtual PSC hearing Wednesday (docket NUSF-131). The commission had a sound framework for conducting the first reverse auction in August 2022, said Robbins. But it makes sense to raise starting reserve prices next time, he said. “Afterall, it is a reverse auction [and] the main goal of the reserve price is to incentivize bidding -- ideally, by multiple parties -- so that the price can be lowered in successive rounds.” Staff recommends setting the reserve price two to three times higher than the model price, Robbins said. Also, the commission should reconfigure the units up for bid, said Robbins. “Since the bidding units in the last auction were census block groups, sometimes the blocks that made up the group were scattered and not contiguous,” which may have ballooned possible project costs, he said. Staff recommends allowing participation by the originally assigned price-cap carriers that returned USF funding or were withheld support, said Robbins: They might want to bid since they could get more money than they would have under the previous USF distribution mechanism, especially with the proposed higher reserve prices and smaller bidding units. Such companies are also likely to have the closest facilities and may be able to provide service for the least cost, he said. Also, staff recommends all participants have eligible telecom carrier designations to participate, which would allow carrier of last resort obligations and ongoing support to be transferred to the winning bidders, said Robbins: Bidders should commit to taking those obligations. Commissioner Tim Schram (R) suggested the Nebraska PSC at least ask applicants to say whether they will connect all the way to a customer’s location, such as in a situation where the customer has a half-mile-long driveway. Also, Schram wants to make sure winning bidders will connect customers to the state’s nearly complete next-generation 911 network. “We've spent millions ... to modernize that network and I just want to make sure that consumers have the ability to connect to it." Fixed wireless can participate if they can meet the program’s requirements for 100 Mbps symmetrical broadband, Robbins answered Commissioner Kevin Stocker (R). “I believe they can meet the speed requirements according to what I’ve seen them claim in the past.”
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Senior Editor, is the state and local telecommunications reporter for Communications Daily, where he also has covered Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. He has won awards for his Warren Communications News reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, Specialized Information Publishers Association and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of dystopian science-fiction novels. You can follow Bender at WatchAdam.blog and @WatchAdam on Twitter.
The Wyoming Public Service Commission won't vote at Thursday’s meeting on a staff proposal to grant a Dish Wireless application for eligible telecom carrier designation. The application in docket 60061-6-RA-23 was on the consent agenda, but Commissioner Chris Petrie said he has questions for Dish and asked to table the item until the Aug. 8 meeting at 1:30 p.m. MDT. Dish seeks “limited designation to provide Lifeline service to qualifying Wyoming consumers, including those customers residing on federally recognized Tribal lands,” said a July 24 staff memo. The company doesn’t seek access to USF high-cost support. The Utah PSC last month set a Nov. 28 hearing on a similar Dish petition (see 2307240029).
Geography and topography could be a big hurdle for states in NTIA's broadband equity, deployment and access (BEAD) program. In draft five-year action plans, many states cited terrain as a chief challenge for getting service to high-cost areas, with several looking at options including satellite broadband and fixed wireless to serve high-cost areas. Numerous states also cited challenges such as labor shortages and affordability, longer supply chain lead times and regulatory hurdles, according to our review of draft plans made public so far.
Verizon renewed a request for leeway to migrate many California Tracfone customers despite getting rejected last month by the California Public Utilities Commission’s executive director. Taking a fresh procedural tack, Verizon petitioned Thursday to modify the CPUC’s 2021 Verizon/Tracfone conditional OK to remove a two-year deadline and eliminate penalties (docket A.20-11-001). The carrier pledged to keep serving unmigrated customers “for an indefinite time period that will last at least through 2025.”
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission voted 2-1 to increase the state USF’s per-connection surcharge, at a livestreamed meeting Thursday. The flat fee will increase to $2.02 monthly per connection in September, from $1.85, under the commission’s second interim order in case OSF2022-000045. Before voting no, Commissioner Bob Anthony noted the draft order was distributed late afternoon Wednesday. In a written dissent, the Republican noted Oklahoma USF (OUSF) collected about $7 million two decades ago, yet Thursday’s order says the fund requires $110 million in fiscal year 2023. “That’s more than 15 times higher than 20 years ago, and the statute still provides no cap.” The government program is opaque, complained Anthony. “Basic transparency and disclosure about this program should enable the public to know: Where do these OUSF monies actually go? To network improvements, infrastructure buildout, and modernization? Or to better salaries, higher profits and larger dividends for a few dozen independent telephone companies and/or their owners?” At the commission’s July 11 meeting, OUSF Administrator Mark Argenbright said the increased surcharge should put the commission on track to eliminating a current USF deficit in September 2024. Argenbright disagreed with CTIA, which said the increasing surcharge shows Oklahoma’s connections-based contribution method isn’t working (see 2307110078).
California faces higher-than-expected construction costs as it works to complete the state’s middle-mile network, said Mark Monroe, deputy director-California Technology Department (CDT) Broadband Middle-Mile Initiative, at a partly virtual California Broadband Council meeting Thursday. And many more miles of fiber will be needed than originally planned, he said. Other state broadband officials said it’s important to keep funding the federal affordable connectivity program (ACP) as California makes gains enrolling households.
The Wireless ISP Association urged California Senate appropriators Wednesday to advance an Assembly-passed bill that would explicitly authorize wireless broadband providers to apply for California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) federal funding account (FFA) grants. AB-1065 cleared the Senate Communications Committee last month (see 2306200053) and is in the Appropriations Committee’s suspense file, a category reserved for bills deemed to be costly. The California Public Utilities Commission “has only funded fiber projects through the FFA, which has led to many California residents lagging woefully behind the state in accessing high-quality internet service,” said WISPA’s letter to Appropriations Committee Chair Anthony Portantino (D). The industry group said fixed wireless “can quickly and efficiently step into this gap.”
Massachusetts advocates are optimistic about making jail and prison calls free in this year’s state budget, they said in interviews this week. Legislators, who are a month late passing the budget, heard testimony on a stand-alone no-cost calls bill at a Joint Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday. If lawmakers can quickly finish the job, call costs will be “one less thing I have to worry about,” said Joanna Levesque, an advocate whose partner is incarcerated in Massachusetts.
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska got wide industry support for making permanent its recently adopted emergency regulations for Alaska USF. Making them permanent would extend the AUSF sunset through June 30, 2026. The RCA received supportive comments in docket R-21-001 this week from Alaska Communications, Alaska Telecom Association (ATA), Alaska Remote Carriers Coalition, GCI, Ketchikan Public Utilities (KPU) and Matanuska Telecom Association. ATA said the RCA's actions to continue AUSF “are crucial in ensuring the provision of essential telecommunications services to rural areas in Alaska.” The RCA should adopt a change proposed by the Alaska Universal Service Administrative Company (AUSAC), some industry groups said. AUSAC urged the RCA July 13 to reinstate a reporting and remittance exception for de minimis carriers, which pay up to $100 annually. "Without the de minimis exception, additional time will be spent on processing paper reports and remittances from de minimis carriers as electronic payments are cost prohibitive for a carrier to remit $8 or less,” the administrator said. “AUSAC has had past experiences with carriers, who were unaware of the de minimis exception, taping coins to mailed remittance reports." KPU supported that proposed change unless it "would create unnecessary delay in adoption or otherwise risk disapproval by the Department of Law.”
AUSTIN -- New NARUC Telecom Committee Chair Tim Schram praised NTIA efforts making broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) allocations, in a Wednesday interview. Also, Schram and another Republican committee member, South Dakota Commissioner Chris Nelson, told us they’re glad the FCC may soon finally have all five seats filled.