WASHINGTON-The House Congressional Rural Caucus released its telecommunications priorities earlier this week and they mirror-almost word for word-the priorities of the Coalition to Keep America Connected, a group of rural wireline carriers that opposes wireless carriers receiving the same amount of universal-service support that they do.
Rural carriers often complain that since their costs are higher than wireless costs, wireless carriers should not receive the same amount of support.
“My experience has taught me that rural providers are the real pioneers in the field of telecommunications technology-a lesson reinforced this summer when I visited a local telephone company in my district and saw firsthand how technology is helping these firms do more with less,” said Rep. John Peterson (R-Penn.), CRC co-chairman. “Now, Congress must do its part to support, and not impede, the progress of these rural providers. They’ve given us a blueprint on how to deploy broadband successfully, and now we as a Congress must follow their lead.”
Unsurprisingly, the Coalition to Keep America Connected released a statement praising the CRC’s goals.
“The legislative priorities outlined by the CRC, especially those focused on strengthening the universal-service fund, go a long way toward ensuring consumers throughout the country have access to the latest technologies and services that are fair and affordable,” said Kelly Worthington, executive vice president of the Western Telecommunications Alliance.
In addition to distributing support based on costs of the recipients, both CRC and the Coalition to Keep America Connected want the universal-service system to remain industry supported rather than paid for through general-tax revenues.
Both groups also want carriers to identify traffic so that they can be compensated for phantom traffic. Phantom traffic is network activity that cannot be billed-either no one claims the traffic or the originator cannot be identified. The situation can eat into carriers’ bottom lines since network time and resources are being used but no one is getting paid.
