Search Result / universal service
FCC Report Recommends Reducing Small Telco Rate of Return
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A report issued by the Federal Communications Commission last week recommends a substantial reduction in the rate of return that the nation’s smallest telephone companies earn through the inter-carrier compensation (ICC) system. Since 1990 that rate has been 11.25% but if the recommendations made by the FCC Wireline Competition Bureau are adopted that rate could...Learn More
Former FCC Chairman and GTCR Fund See Strong Rural Cable Future
Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt hopes this week’s acquisition of tier 2 cable company NewWave Communications by investment firm GTCR will be “the first of many.” Telecompetitor spoke this week with Hundt, who headed up the FCC during the Clinton administration and is now an advisor to GTCR. “We believe cable is the universal American...Learn More
FCC Cracks Door Open on Naked DSL, Standalone Broadband
There has been some tension in the marketplace regarding broadband and voice service, particularly in rural markets. It stems from growing consumer demand for standalone broadband – that is subscribing to broadband without the requirement for an accompanying voice line (sometimes referred to as naked DSL). Regulated rate-of-return rural carriers are challenged with this marketplace...Learn More
Windstream Pushes Rural Health Care Funding
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., May 16, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Each year, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) makes available $400 million in funding through the Rural Health Care (RHC) program, to be used for telecommunications and Internet services for health care providers located in rural areas. However, according to USAC, only $81 million was granted...Learn More
FCC TDM-to-IP Transition Trial Includes Wireless Replacement of Wireline Phone
The FCC on Friday proposed a trial that would enable telecom service providers to replace traditional wireline phone service with wireless service. In addition the commission proposed two separate but related trials – including a VoIP interconnection trial and a trial of next-generation 911 emergency services. Details about the proposed FCC TDM-to-IP transition trials still...Learn More
Catch-Up Talk with Blair Levin Yields Some Surprises
The man who was charged with crafting a plan to bring broadband to all Americans isn’t happy about the way that plan is being implemented. Currently with the Aspen Institute, Blair Levin headed up the team at the FCC that three years ago created the National Broadband Plan with the goal of spurring broadband deployment....Learn More
RUS Makes Telecom Loans, Cites Budget Uncertainty
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service this week announced it has awarded loans totaling $26 million to two rural telecom companies. In the announcement, the USDA also took the opportunity to note that it “remains focused on carrying out its mission, despite a time of significant budget uncertainty.” The loans included $20.8 million...Learn More
FCC Chairman Nominee Wheeler in His Own Words
Former telecom trade association chief and current venture capitalist Tom Wheeler, nominated yesterday to replace Julius Genachowski as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has been hailed for his industry expertise. In a blog that he has written regularly since joining Core Capital Partners several years ago, Wheeler offers a few hints at where he...Learn More
NEP Wireless is First Carrier to Draw on Mobility Fund Winnings
NEP Wireless, a subsidiary of incumbent local carrier North-East Pennsylvania Telephone Company, claims to be the first company to gain approval from the FCC to receive an initial disbursement of funding won in last year’s mobility auction. The company will use the money to construct a 4G LTE network in parts of Wayne and Susquehanna...Learn More
Bill Introduced to Help Low-Income People Pay for Broadband
The funding that low-income people receive to help cover the cost of phone service could be used to cover broadband if a bill introduced in the House of Representatives this week becomes law. Congresswomen Doris Matsui and Anna Eshoo, along with Congressman Henry Waxman, introduced the bill, to be known as the Broadband Adoption Act...Learn More
Connect America Costs to be Based on Fiber-to-the-Premise
When the FCC determines how much support to offer price cap carriers to bring broadband to areas that do not have broadband today in Phase 2 of the Connect America Fund program, the funding offered will be calculated based on the assumption that the carrier will use a fiber-to-the-premises approach. The FCC made the decision...Learn More
Vonage Gets Go-Ahead on Phone Number Trial
The FCC today gave the go-ahead for Vonage to conduct a trial that will enable the VOIP provider to have direct access to nearly 150,000 phone numbers for assignment to its customers. The commission also is considering making phone numbers available more broadly to VOIP providers and other non-traditional telecom service providers. Currently phone numbers...Learn More