Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
By Andrew Feinberg, Deputy Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, November 18, 2009 - The Universal Service Fund is in need of an overhaul to equalize costs among stakeholders and modernize programs to include broadband services, a group of industry representatives and regulators told the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet during a Tuesday hearing.
The hearing examined a discussion draft of the Universal Service Reform Act of 2009, authored by subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb.
The Universal Service program, which existed for decades before being codified in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, is under "tremendous pressure" and requires a comprehensive effort to reform its operations, Boucher said during opening remarks.
Reform is needed because new technologies for long distance voice communications have reduced the available revenue that can be tapped to fund current programs, leading to soaring costs for consumers – a projected 14 percent of revenues in January of 2010, he said.
Such an increase and a maintenance of the status quo is simply "not sustainable," Boucher said. The Boucher-Terry bill would cap the high cost portion of the fund while requiring wireless carriers who participate to do so through a competitive bidding process. Such legislative...
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Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
By Andrew Feinberg, Deputy Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, April 28, 2009 - Congress is unlikely to act on major broadband issues until after the August recess, aides to House and Senate committee chairs told attendees Tuesday at the American Cable Association summit here.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V. wants to work on "a host of pressing challenges" this year, said deputy chief of staff James Reid. Rockefeller and Sen. John Kerry, D-Ma., who chairs the newly constituted Telecommunications Subcommittee, are looking at a number of communications and media-related issues for consideration.
But Reid said Senate action is unlikely to go beyond hearings, with the exception of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension Reauthorization Act, which expires at year's end. He blamed the current pace of Senate debate for the pessimistic outlook, "You need bills that can be done [on the Senate floor] in one or two days," he said. But Reid added that the committee's fall schedule had not yet been mapped out, leaving the possibility for new developments open.
On the House side, Energy and Commerce Committee Senior Counsel Tim Powderly said Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., was "singularly focused" on climate change legislation, and along with health care reform, would likely dominate the...
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