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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Thursday, June 18th, 2009
By Andrew Feinberg, Deputy Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
ARLINGTON, Va., June 18, 2009 - House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., has no plans to influence the Federal Communications Commission's development of a national broadband plan.
But speaking Thursday morning at the Pike and Fischer Broadband Policy Summit here, he made clear his experience representing a rural district informs his ideas on how the FCC should assist the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and Rural Utilities Service in defining unserved and underserved markets.
Boucher reiterated his belief in broadband as the "new essential American infrastructure," which he said is of equal importance to this century as rural electrification and universal telephone service was to the last.
In the new economy, the "corridors of commercial opportunity" will be defined more and more by broadband, he said.
The $7.25 billion appropriated for broadband in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act is "an historic opportunity" to improve America's rankings among [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] nations, Boucher said. America must improve her OECD rankings "for the sake of our national economy," he urged. "I know we can do better."
Boucher is "hopeful" that NTIA and RUS will develop "complementary" standards for grant and loan making criteria, and...
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Thursday, February 26th, 2009
News
By Jesse Masai, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, February 26, 2009 - Members of Congress, public interest advocates and community organizations applauded the reintroduction of legislation to authorize a new wave of low power FM radio licenses during a Wednesday conference call organized by public advocacy group Free Press.
Supporters of the Local Community Radio Act say the bill would unleash the potential of low power FM radio to create jobs and serve diverse communities across the United States.
The LCRA would provide a mechanism for licensing approximately 3,000 low power community radio stations. Licensees would be limited to local governments and non-profit entities including educational, religious or labor organizations that serve specific audiences or small markets.
The Federal Communications Commission began to issue Low Power FM licenses in 2000 after an intense lobbying effort. But Congress later placed restrictions on the licenses at the behest of the National Association of Broadcasters, drastically limiting the power levels and spectrum available to LPFM stations.
The LCRA is sponsored by Reps. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and Lee Terry, R-Neb. The bill would lift current restrictions and allow the FCC to begin issuing new licenses. The Doyle-Terry bill does not yet have a Senate companion.
"It is in everyone's interest to promote...
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