WASHINGTON-The Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies Tuesday urged the Federal Communications Commission to set stringent standards for competitors-usually wireless carriers-to receive universal-service subsidies and then require the staff to stick to those rules.
“If the FCC’s own bureaus cannot adhere to an adopted framework for conducting public-interest analyses, how can it reasonably expect state commissions to follow any federal guidelines on minimum eligible telecommunications carrier eligibility criteria that are adopted? It is essential that the commission lead by example and conduct a rigorous public-interest analysis each and every time it considers an ETC application for a rural service area,” said Stuart Polikoff, OPASTCO director of government relations.
The FCC is scheduled to rule on ETC eligibility criteria by the end of the month following a recommendation by the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service last year. A carrier must be designated an ETC to receive subsidies.
“The accusation that the states and the FCC are not doing their jobs does not square with the facts. The FCC can take pride in having successfully struck a careful balance, in the Virginia Cellular and Highland Cellular cases, between enabling varied facilities-based services in rural areas and ensuring accountability in the use of high-cost funding. These precedents have governed FCC ETC designations and have been highly influential with state commissions,” said Mark Rubin, director of federal government relations for Western Wireless Corp.
What raised Polikoff’s ire was a situation involving Nextel Partners Inc. Last August, the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau granted Nextel Partners ETC status to receive subsidies to provide service in the area served by TDS Telecom.
“What happened in the TDS Telecom circumstance was a travesty,” Polikoff told RCR Wireless News.
The FCC set some standards for competitors to receive ETC status when it granted Virginia Cellular L.L.C. ETC status last year. Polikoff believes the wireline bureau ignored those clues when it granted the Nextel Partners ETC application.
Believing that Nextel Partners does not intend to serve its area, TDS Telecom has asked for a full commission review. That is still pending but Mark Wigfield, spokesman for the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, said it is not expected to be decided along with the eligibility criteria.
Nextel Partners said earlier this year that it would use the universal-service subsidies to build 13 cell sites in Alabama, 12 cell sites in Florida, 13 cell sites in Georgia, 19 cell sites in New York, 10 cell sites in Pennsylvania, three cell sites in Tennessee and 16 cell sites in Virginia.
