Leaders at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) have joined the cry for the FCC to postpone its planned, comprehensive intercarrier compensation/Universal Service Fund (ICC/USF) reform.
“The FCC is rushing to resolve a $13 billion problem based on insufficient information, an inadequate record, and an incredibly compressed deliberative period,” representatives wrote in an Oct. 21 letter to the FCC. “There is no need to do so,” they added.
The FCC is circulating a draft order that would revamp the convoluted ICC and USF regimes as of Nov. 4. CLECs and RLECs are among the entities pressuring the FCC not to enact thorough changes by then because no one besides FCC commissioners knows what the proposed order includes.
“The commission cannot rely on informal news briefings, a release announcing a draft is circulating, and private-party submissions to support a change in the rules governing intercarrier compensation where it does not give commenters adequate notice or a fair opportunity to challenge either the veracity of the evidence submitted or the structure of the rules proposed,” the letter said.
Any new proposal raises unanswered questions, NARUC said. For example, representatives asked, would reform increase wireless or broadband deployment in unserved or underserved high-cost areas, or actually undermine deployment? Is the legal rationale consistent with Congressional intent? How does the approach benefit consumers, if at all? Will it put upward pressure on local rates; if so, what are the expected rate increases?
Those concerns echoed the fears of a number of organizations, from CLECs and RLECs to consumer and other interest groups that say the FCC is pushing too hard, in too short a timeframe, to overhaul ICC/USF. The FCC only is required by a federal court to respond to a long-pending dial-up traffic issue by Nov. 5. Otherwise, there is no mandate on FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to resolve ICC/USF right away.
Since taking the lead at the FCC, Martin has stated his desire to reform ICC/USF. But he has waited until the very last days of the Bush administration to do so.
If an overhaul passes, two outcomes could occur. First, companies and interest groups surely would sue to have the order overturned. Or, they might be able to have the next set of as-yet-unknown FCC commissioners review the order and add to it or subtract from it.
NARUC has been instrumental in pitching ideas for intercarrier compensation reform. It filed the complex Missoula Plan with the FCC in 2006, a document that has attracted support and scrutiny from various parties within the communications industry. But, NARUC said in its FCC filing, suggesting that proposed reforms are an outgrowth of the Missoula Plan, which received extensive comment, “is not tenable.”
“Given the lack of notice about the direction the agency has proceeded, commenters have not had any real opportunity to view or critique any of the myriad of proposals submitted in this huge docket, nor – except for leaked information about a large draft order circulated internally ... has the commission expressed which alternatives it is considering.”
