Genachowski’s Potemkin Rural Visit; RLECs and ILECs Suck it up and Play Nice

Part 2 of “2011: The Regulatory Year in Review.” The summer months had a fairly slow start, with some tepid FCC activities and a short lull in the USF/ICC Reform chronicle.  Drama with AT&T/T-Mobile was ongoing, with controversies coming to light regarding AT&T’s paid-for support of the merger. Organizations completely unaffiliated with the telecommunications industry nevertheless waved the AT&T/T-Mobile flag with pride; which rose more than a few eyebrows and even led to a few shakeups and firings in said organizations.  Given the news yesterday that AT&T and T-Mobile will drop the merger completely, it is actually a little funny to look back at the year and all of the bickering and moaning that occurred over this doomed betrothal (more to come on that topic the next installment). The stand-out event of the summer was without a doubt the ILEC-RLEC “Consensus Framework” for USF/ICC Reform, which like AT&T/T-Mobile, seemed like a sure-bet to the parties involved at first but slowly dissolved largely due to the FCC’s stern agendas.

May 2011: May was a big month for USF/ICC Reform reply comments and ex parte filings, but little else. Republican FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker announced early in the month her intent to leave the Commission for a lucrative lobbying position at Comcast, just months after she voted in favor of the Comcast-NBCU merger. Naturally, watchdogs cried foul and even demanded a Congressional investigation. The “revolving door” is nothing new as prominent FCC staff circle back and forth around the DC telecom lobby scene, but Baker’s announcement definitely had a bitter taste given the large public opposition to the Comcast-NBCU deal.  In her official farewell statement, Baker explained that she had not been contacted by Comcast until mid-April, long after the deal was done, and “I have not only complied with the legal and ethical laws, but I have also gone further. I have not participated or voted any item, not just those related to Comcast or NBCUniversal, since entering discussions about an offer of potential employment.” Meanwhile, the revolving door keeps spinning…

Chairman Genachowski’s May 18 trip to Diller, Nebraska topped my Hot List for the year, but largely because I was endlessly entertained by the big kerfuffle made out of this beltway-insider visiting fly-over country for all of a couple hours. “It’s Nebraska, not the moon,” I said. In late 1700s Russia, the story goes that “Potemkin villages”—fake settlements with all the bells and whistles—were constructed for the sole purpose of impressing Empress Catherine II when she visited the rural countryside. Genachwoski’s visit was the opposite of a Potemkin village—it was a Potemkin visit. The whole ordeal seemed like the FCC’s way of satiating the rural telecom industry (and rural Americans) by saying, “Hey, we understand what you are going through every day, and your unique needs, because we visited one of your communities!” Personally, I saw right through the façade, but nonetheless it was a nice effort. Genachowski visited locally-owned businesses and an RLEC, where he even posed for photo-ops in the CO. His overall messages was that rural businesses require broadband in order to succeed, which is absolutely no surprise for the RLECs who have been providing broadband to local businesses for years.

June 2011: The month with the longest days can basically be summed up in one word: reports. In the span of a few weeks, the FCC released three “big” reports of varying significance and quality. The first, “Information Needs of Communities: The Changing Media Landscape in a Broadband Age” (by Steve Waldman), I admit I did not pay much attention to. The gist was that broadband is important for a vibrant media experience and “a free democracy comprised of important and empowered citizens.” In response to this report, resident media champion Commissioner Copps proclaimed that “it is imperative that the FCC play a vital role in helping to ensure that all Americans have access to diverse and competing news and information that provide the grist for democracy’s churning mill.” Copps zoomed in on an alleged “crisis” identified in the report that “more than one-third of our commercial broadcasters offer little to no news whatsoever to their communities of license.” Basically, we need more local news and more ways to protect local media from Big media—Copps explained, “Localism means less program homogenization, more local and less canned music, and community news actually originated in the market where it is broadcast.”

The June 22 report, “Bringing Broadband to Rural America: Update to Report on a Rural Broadband Strategy” was more relevant to RLECs but generally lacked substance.  This 29-page document from the FCC and USDA was a Congressionally-mandated update to a much more comprehensive 2009 report “describing a ‘comprehensive rural broadband strategy.’” Again, the gist of this report was fairly straightforward—all Americans should have access to broadband, and we just aren’t doing a good enough job in rural America despite making “significant progress” in the last two years. The key take-away of this report was that it provided some extra ammunition for the FCC’s USF/ICC Reform decision, as it self-served the FCC’s reform principles of accountability, fiscal responsibility, and market-driven incentives.  Genachowski proclaimed that it was “not acceptable” that 28% of rural Americans lack broadband, as found in the report.

Ending the month was the ironically-titled “Fifteenth Annual Mobile Wireless Competition Report,” where the FCC made no definitive conclusion (in 308 pages) about the state of competition in a report where the FCC was explicitly directed to make a definitive conclusion about the state of competition in the wireless market…. So much for that goal… Nevertheless, the Big 4 (and others) used the report to prop up their own agendas—be it proof that the industry is totally competitive or totally not competitive. AT&T cherry-picked certain data from the report to depict a vibrantly competitive wireless industry to boost their assertion that the merger with T-Mobile would not be anticompetitive. Lack of conclusion aside, this report did contain some interesting factoids about the wireless market in general. (The ILEC Advisor: How do You Measure Wireless Competition?).

July 2011: July was all about reaching an industry consensus for USF/ICC reform. The FCC asked for it, and RLECs/ILECs delivered, albeit too late for the FCC’s impossibly high standards of time. At the beginning of July, it still appeared as though a consensus was a million light-years away—reply comments, ex parte filings, and a series of high-profile events on the topic in DC did little to ease my mind even though a comprehensive “Consensus Framework” kept being promised. Mid-month, the Rural Associations came out swinging with a far-reaching advocacy campaign called “Save Rural Broadband,” aimed at getting consumers to contact their Congressional offices  with their concerns about being left behind in the Great Broadband Race of the 2010s. (The ILEC Advisor: Comments Show Little Consensus on USF Reform Issues, Rural Associations Launch “Save Rural Broadband”).

On July 29, the long-awaited Consensus Framework was finally released for public inspection. Called America’s Broadband Connectivity Plan (ABC Plan), this proposal was the baby of the 6 largest price cap ILECs, but “supported” by the Rural Associations.  It presented what the involved parties believed was a reasonable and appropriate framework for price cap ILECs, if used in conjunction with the RLEC Plan for rate-of-return companies. Both sides made compromises—including the Rural Associations’ reluctant acceptance of a $0.0007 access rate. The ABC Plan was widely criticized by basically any party who wasn’t directly involved in its creation. (The ILEC Advisor: Price Cap Carriers Release “ABC Plan” for USF with Rural Support).

Finally, the FCC attended one of those pesky consumer issues in July- “mystery fees,” and “cramming”—“the illegal placement of an unauthorized fee onto consumer’s monthly phone bill.” The FCC proposed rules that would require telecommunications providers to clearly notify consumers how to block third-party charges on their bills, among other measures. Between the mystery fee crackdown, July proposals to improve VoIP E911 availability and reliability, and the December rules barring uber-loud TV commercials, the FCC certainly stepped up in response to various consumer pressures throughout the year.

Coming up next in “2011: The Regulatory Year in Review,” we will reminisce about all the fun we had in that tumultuous time between when the Consensus Framework was released and the USF/ICC Order was approved—you don’t want to miss this!

In the Midst of USF Reform News Drought, Copps Speaks out at NARUC Annual Meeting

First we thought the rules would be available last week, but no such luck.  Now the rural telecom industry is bracing for a pre-Thanksgiving release of this epic document.  As the Connect America Fund R&O and FNPRM waiting game continues, it was actually exciting today to read FCC Commissioner Michael Copps’ Nov. 15 commentary from the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Annual Meeting in St. Louis, MO. He didn’t give a release date for the order, but he did make interesting remarks about some aspects of the order including the controversial role of states under the new regime. He also expressed mild contempt for parties who may be tempted to file lawsuits…and waivers.

Here are some notable quotes from Copps’ speech:

• “The old saying is, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ Well, you can’t make that argument here. The system was broken—and we were left with no real option short of a major overhaul.”
• “Now I know that not everyone here is satisfied with everything the Commission did three weeks ago. Neither am I. But I think we both made a difference. Your input did greatly inform the Commission’s deliberations and its ultimate decisions—even though we had to make difficult choices that will change some legacy state responsibilities.”
• “We incorporated numerous ideas from the state Joint Board members’ comments, such as imposing significant reporting requirements on USF recipients and requiring all reporting data to be jointly provided to the FCC and state Commissions.”
• “States can perform many functions better than the federal government—and by ‘many functions’ I mean a whole lot of them. And I am looking for ways to expand the state role under the reformed system.”

In his remarks at the Oct. 27 FCC Open Meeting, Copps did emphasize that he wanted to expand the states’ role, in contrast to the ILECs’ ABC Plan recommendations. Going by the next comment from Copps, he appears to be taking a solid stance against the large ILECs’ pleas for reduced state involvement in the Connect America Fund:

• “Nothing undermines this kind of substantive state role more than the few carriers who run to state legislatures lobbying for laws that effectively put state public service commissions out of the business of public interest oversight and consumer protection. That mocks the law. It mocks good telecommunications policy. And it mocks consumers.”

Copps continued stressing a “needs of many…” attitude, and warning that he will not take kindly to lawsuits and waivers filed after the release of the Order. It will be very interesting to see what kinds of hoops-on-fire the FCC will impose on the RLECs who are hoping to file a waiver. Copps asserted:

• “I have no illusions about what perils await the new Order, but I do want to suggest how much better off we will be if our efforts going forward focus on working together to implement these new frameworks, and working constructively to make changes where they may be called for, rather than spending precious time that the country does not have on litigation or legislative end-runs that seek to advantage factional interests at the expense of the greater good.”
• “I contest no one’s right to take us to court, of course, but America just doesn’t have time to waste watching warring parties duke it out in courts that themselves often disagree while millions of citizens go unserved.”
• “I think another example of time wasted would be for carriers to file frivolous waiver requests to lock in legacy support that is not really needed to ensure that consumers have a landline voice provider. All that accomplishes is the diversion of precious resources away from carriers who really do need a safety net.”

With Copps movin’ on out of the FCC at the end of the year, it is hard to tell if the hard core opponents of the Order, such as the cable industry, will be deterred from going to court by Copps’ amusing comment, “I’m thinking about conferring my own special award on the first party who takes these decisions to court – I’m calling it the ‘Great Courthouse Cop-Out’ – and it might be accompanied by a stocking full of coal if it happens around the holidays.”

Although Copps’ speech lacked any shocking revelations about the Order, it was rather revealing about his attitude toward the states’ role, large ILECs, and his expectations for the aftermath of the release. He seems to be expecting lawsuits and waivers, but would likely prefer to see the industry just accept the changes and move forward. He emphasizes this by saying, “Let’s just get at it! America works best when people pull together toward an important goal.”

Copps didn’t indicate what constitutes a “frivolous” waiver; but it is nevertheless worrisome that the FCC may be crafting a waiver process that is unreasonably difficult for small rural companies with limited resources.  An unreasonably difficult and costly waiver process could be yet another way that the FCC signals its general disregard for small rural carriers. However, this is clearly speculation at this point since the details of the Order, including the waiver process, are still locked safely inside the FCC away from the critical eyes of the entire industry and public.

What did you think of Copps’ remarks about the Connect America Fund Order? Does a soon-to-be ex-Commissioner have enough sway to deter lawsuits and waivers?

The full text of his speech is available here.