The FCC on Wednesday released the tentative agenda for its Dec. 18 meeting and any items pertaining to intercarrier compensation/Universal Service Fund (ICC/USF) reform were conspicuously absent.
Commissioners last month pushed to move overhaul discussions to December so they and the industry would have more time to consider the 450-page proposed order. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin had come under fire from CLECs, consumer groups, state associations and others for not allowing the industry to read the draft and comment on its contents. Martin subsequently agreed not to hold a vote on ICC/USF reform on Nov. 3, and, two days later, the FCC published a further notice of proposed rulemaking, opening the floor for more comments in the seven-year-old reform docket.
Since Nov. 5, then, organizations and companies have filed more input on the proposed order. And commissioners expected to vote on ICC/USF on Dec. 18. As Deborah Tate told members at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) meeting in November, “I am confident that we can vote on some degree of reform at our December meeting.”
But the vote appears to have once again fallen through, likely because regulators acknowledged the proposed ICC/USF changes cover so much ground that the industry hasn’t had enough time to digest the details. There are plenty of other items on the Dec. 18 agenda, however. Most address the upcoming DTV transition, and wireless radio and advanced wireless services rules. Martin’s pitch for cost-free, skin-free wireless Internet still looks to be on the table, too.
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