WASHINGTON-A federal appeals court has rejected an assertion by the wireless industry it should
not have to pay into individual state universal service funds. “Today’s [March 16] decision is a victory for
consumers,” said Lawrence Stickling, chief of the Common Carrier Bureau of the Federal Communications
Commission.
Since each state is responsible for paying for a percentage of the cost to serve all of the customers in
its state, most states have created a separate USF. The states are requiring telecommunications carriers to pay into these
funds. And, in Texas, that includes wireless carriers.
When Texas included commercial mobile radio service, CMRS
carriers balked, saying they are not subject to state regulators unless they offer substitute local exchange carrier service
so they should not have to pay into state USFs. The FCC disagreed, saying states could levy USF contributions even
though they could not regulate CMRS rates.
“We are disappointed (but) not very disappointed. This is an
issue where we failed to convince the FCC, the 10th Circuit and now the D.C. Circuit to read [the Communications
Act] our way,” said Michael Altschul, vice president and general counsel of the Cellular Telecommunications
Industry Association. CTIA had appealed the FCC’s rules, which allowed states to impose universal-service obligations
on CMRS carriers.
The 10th court decision involved similar rules in Kansas. There will not be an appeal, he added.
“We don’t intend to pursue this any further.”
The Personal Communications Industry Association,
which joined in the CTIA lawsuit, stressed the wireless industry will continue to pay its fair share for universal service
but expressed concern some states will use wireless contributions to resolve wireline rate issues.
