FCC Agenda Likely to Stay Laser-Focused on Broadband, Spectrum

2011 was undoubtedly a landmark year for Julius Genachowski & Friends, but will 2012 include great leaps forward as USF/ICC reform, Connect to Compete and the White Spaces? The FCC certainly has its work cut out tying up loose ends on all three of these seminal issues. We can likely anticipate further powerful thrusts to improve wired and wireless broadband deployment and adoption in 2012, as well as initiatives to alleviate the spectrum crunch.

2012 might be the Year of the Reverse Auction. Reverse auctions could be spectacularly disastrous or sensationally effective, depending on a variety of factors including auction design and industry participation. Two other issues that RLECs should watch for in 2012 are solutions for the rural call termination problems and the PSTN transition—I would expect proceedings on both in 2012, and hopefully a swift resolution to the call termination problems.

A December 8 speech by Commissioner Robert McDowell to the Federal Communications Bar Association titled “2012: The Year of the U.N. Regulation of the Internet?” revealed some clues about what may come in 2012 at the FCC. I was most excited about this possibility: “Until it actually happens, I will keep talking about launching and concluding a proceeding to reform our Universal Service program’s contribution methodology by mid-year.” As the USF contribution rate reaches an all-time high of nearly 18%, the FCC should have adequate pressure to make a move on contributions reform. Additionally, USF contributions reform is basically the last box left to check under the National Broadband Plan goals for modernizing USF. The question is: who will have to contribute under the new methodology? Will all broadband service providers and consumers be on the chopping block? What about major content providers like Google and Netflix? I expect that the contributions reform proceeding will be every bit as action-packed and controversial as the 2011 USF/ICC reform proceedings.

We aren’t nearly finished grappling with the November 18 USF/ICC Reform Order either—not by a long shot. Comments in response to the FNPRM are due in several rounds throughout January, February and March. Following these comment cycles, we will possibly get some resolution on 2011 rural telecom cliff-hangers like rate-of-return re-prescription, CAF methodologies for RLECs, broadband public interest obligations, IP interconnection, and the Remote Areas Fund.

A Policy “Roulette Wheel”

The dreaded HCLS regression analysis will cause no end of headaches for RLECs in 2012 as these companies will need to play a rather sadistic guessing game with their costs in order to avoid placement at or above the ninetieth percentile. The precise regression analysis methodology will be finalized through the FNPRM—it is very concerning that the proposed methodology inserts such a great deal of unpredictability in HCLS because RLECs will not know in advance if they will fall above the ninetieth percentile—this level of unpredictability is far greater than the rather constant artificial increases in the NACPL used to cap current HCLS.

The FCC appears to protect itself from legal challenges by adopting a regression analysis methodology that will be used, predictably, but the methodology itself is where things get murky. In other words, it is predictable that the FCC will use the regression analysis, but it is unpredictable as to how individual companies are impacted by the model. The unfortunate carriers who fall in or above the ninetieth percentile of similarly situated carriers may face a double-whammy punishment: clipped support and ineligibility to receive redistributed support.

John Staurulakis Inc. economic and policy director Douglas Meredith provided the following statement about the regression analysis: “The FCC regression methodology proposed to limit capital and operational expenditures is fraught with policy and technical challenges. This method is an order of magnitude less predictable for individual carriers than the current HCLS mechanism—even with the current capping procedure. This method has been summarized as a ‘race to the middle.’ If adopted, we should consider whether a capital expenditure race to the middle will promote and advance universal service in high-cost and remotely populated areas of the nation.”

Meredith continues, “I submit that the proposed method fails to achieve the Congressional goals for universal service. In addition to serious policy concerns, the technical aspects of the proposed method are also suspect: study areas that are missing from the FCC’s analysis, descriptive independent variables missing from the model, relatively low goodness of fit measures and a high reliance on covariance relationships among carriers makes the application of this regression method look more like a roulette wheel in Las Vegas than well-established public policy.”

There’s a First Time for Everything

As mentioned above, I expect 2012 to be the Year of Reverse Auctions. The FCC is responsible for designing—for the first time ever—reverse auctions for second phases of the Mobility Fund and the wireline broadband Connect America Fund. Furthermore, if Congress releases under-utilized government spectrum in 2012, the FCC may also be tasked with designing auctions for this spectrum too. According to McDowell’s December 8 speech, “If that were to occur in 2012, suddenly the Commission could be working furiously on auction and service rules, band plans and such throughout the year.”

Voluntary incentive auction legislation has passed in the House, which Genachowski praised as a “major achievement.” Genachowski’s December 13 statement explains that the legislation “would authorize the Federal Communications Commission to conduct voluntary incentive auctions as recommended in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan. This would free up new spectrum for mobile broadband, driving investment, innovation, and job creation; generating many billions of dollars in revenue; and helping foster U.S. leadership in mobile broadband.” Genachowski insists that FCC incentive auction authority “needs to become law;” but warns that the House bill “could be counterproductive” by downplaying FCC policies to promote unlicensed spectrum and limiting the FCC’s ability to develop band plans and auction structures “in ways that maximize the value of licensed spectrum.”

How will the FCC avoid pitfalls associated with reverse auctions, which have been implemented internationally with less-than-stellar results? How will the FCC ensure that small rural carriers have a fair shot in future auctions? The Mobility Fund Phase II proceeding may provide an excellent opportunity for small carriers to state their demands and recommend a methodology that is fair for companies of all shapes and sizes. But... will the FCC listen, or pull a Consensus Framework 2.0, demanding industry input then essentially ignoring it?

Broadband for President in 2012

The FCC built up considerable momentum in 2011 with broadband adoption and deployment initiatives; but the U.S. has a whole lot of work to do before reclaiming #1 in the world for broadband adoption, deployment and speed—a spot in the top ten would be a nice goal for now. You can debate how important international broadband rankings are in the grand scheme of things, but with a presidential election on the horizon it probably wouldn’t be out of line to speculate that America’s sub-par international broadband ranking could become a hot-button issue in 2012.

A December 14 FCC blog post by Josh Gottheimer and Jordan Usdan includes a line that could easily be inserted into any run-of-the-mill campaign sound-byte: “Closing the digital divide isn’t just an economic issue, it’s one of the great civil rights challenges of our time. Broadband can be the great equalizer – giving every American with an Internet connection access to a world of new opportunities that might otherwise be beyond their reach.” The common assumption among politicos is that more broadband means more jobs, so increasing broadband will surely make it into multiple presidential-hopefuls’ campaigns. As a result, the FCC could be pressured to take further drastic steps to influence broadband adoption and deployment, even if 2011 initiatives (like Connect to Compete, for example) prove unsuccessful at actually adding percentage points to deployment and adoption rates.

The Legislative and Legal Fronts

2012 is also looking to be a significant year for telecom and Internet-related legislation and legal decisions. The Internet ecosystem is in an uproar over House and Senate legislation to combat online piracy and “rogue” foreign websites, to the extent that the uproar over net neutrality almost pales in comparison. Given the public outcry, it seems unlikely that SOPA or PIPA will pass as they stand, but we can probably expect similar legislation to go through in 2012—hopefully it won’t kill the Internet as we know it.

A House bill to actually reform the FCC is still a live wire on the Hill, so we might continue to see a power struggle between Congress and the independent agency charged with regulating telecom that we all love so much. According to a December 20 Politico article, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) “called the FCC ‘way out of control,’” and stated, “’We need to reign them in and remind them that their job is not to manage the industry but to provide just a light hand of regulation to make sure there is fairness.’”

Additionally, courts in DC and Denver will hear appeals cases on net neutrality and USF/ICC reform, respectively. Although it is too early to tell how these cases will conclude, we can’t rule out the possibility that the decisions could throw a wrench into the regulations and reforms that the FCC spent the better part of the last 3 years bringing to fruition.

If the regulatory theme of 2010 was the National Broadband Plan (with net neutrality a close second) and USF/ICC reform dominated 2011; what will be the one thing that we will remember the 2012 FCC for accomplishing? You know my guess is designing and implementing reverse auctions for the Mobility Fund, CAF and re-released spectrum, but what do you think?