WASHINGTON-Despite fierce lobbying by Western Wireless Corp. and the Oglala Sioux Indian Tribe, a decision from the Federal Communications Commission to award Western Wireless eligible telecommunications carrier status in time to allow Western to continue building out its network on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota may not come before the expected early onset of winter.
ETC status is necessary for competitive local exchange carriers to receive universal-service subsidies.
Currently, Western is offering the Oglala Sioux wireless local loop service for $14.99 per month, an amount Western says is a loss. Western has signed up more than 1,000 customers-42 percent of which have never had prior telephone service. This has maxed out the current Pine Ridge network. Western says it needs to build additional towers to increase capacity on the network, but it is unwilling to build those towers until it receives ETC status. It has already sunk $1.1 million into building the current network.
Western’s main goal is to have the FCC make a decision by the end of the month, but it seems unlikely this deadline will be met given the upheaval the commission is going through with three new commissioners and staff that need to be brought up to speed. Western met with representatives of FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Kathleen Abernathy late last month, but FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin was not sworn in until July 2.
During the June meetings, Western presented a background paper that details what Western believes the FCC can and must do to help the Oglala Sioux get telephone service.
“The FCC has already exercised its jurisdiction to designate as ETCs tribally owned carriers providing universal service to tribal lands. For other carriers, such as Western Wireless, the FCC has decided that it will first determine whether there is a lack of state jurisdiction … and then address whether the substantive ETC criteria are met. South Dakota lacks jurisdiction over Western Wireless’ provision of universal service on the Pine Ridge Reservation under the Tate Woglaka Service Agreement.”
Western signed the Tate Woglaka-or Talking Wind-agreement with the Oglala Sioux last year first on the reservation and then in an elaborate signing ceremony in Washington some months later.
Although ETC status is usually a question left to the states, it is in the FCC’s lap because the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is considered sovereign territory. The FCC has established a government-to-government relationship with Native Americans, by-passing the individual state jurisdictions.
Incumbent local exchange carriers have often called on the FCC to allow states to decide ETC status.
Also on the universal service front, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association is urging the FCC to keep its safe harbor percentage that allows wireless carriers to pay into the Universal-Service Fund based on a percentage of total revenues. Normally universal-service contributions are assessed based on interstate revenues only, but wireless carriers do not normally separate interstate vs. intrastate revenues so the FCC established the 15-percent safe harbor.
“In 1998, the commission recognized the impracticability of requiring [commercial mobile radio services] carriers to jurisdictionally separate revenues to determine USF contributions due to the mobile nature of their services and the design of their networks. To address these concerns, the commission adopted the interim safe harbor to allow carriers to report 15 percent of their revenues as interstate for universal-service contribution purposes. CMRS carriers have come to rely on the safe harbor as a mechanism to help them apply rules suited to wireline carriers to the unique CMRS context. Not only should the commission maintain the safe harbor, it should adjust the percentage using methodology in the Safe Harbor Order by reducing the safe harbor percentage to 13.25 percent,” said CTIA.
CTIA also warned the FCC about imposing specific language on how carriers characterize universal-service contributions, saying to do so would “contravene carriers” First Amendment commercial speech rights and would impose unnecessary regulation on an unquestionably competitive market in clear contradiction of the Telecommunications Act of 1996’s deregulatory goals.
Also, the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies, commenting in the same proceeding, told the FCC to keep the current system.
“The [FCC] believes … a collected revenue methodology would also assist these carriers in accounting for uncollectible revenues. Yet, the irony with this proposal is that while it may improve competitive neutrality for IXCs vis-a-vis the regional Bell operating companies entering the long-distance market, it is decidedly biased against carriers who maintain the best track record in minimizing their uncollectible revenues. Under a collected revenues assessment methodology, the commission would be rewarding inefficiency. Carriers with low levels of uncollected revenues would, in effect, be subsidizing those carriers with higher levels of uncollected revenues. This is patently unfair to the most efficient carriers and their customers. Uncollectible revenues are an ongoing cost that every service provider incurs in doing business, and it is each carrier’s individual responsibility to deal with this problem,” said OPASTCO.
