Verizon exec says broadband should not be part of USF

Verizon Communications applauds President George Bush’s goal of affordable broadband to all U.S. citizens by 2007, but the RBOC does not believe broadband should be part of the universal-service funding program, according to Tom Tauke, Verizon’s executive vice president of public affairs and communications.

In a post-election press conference yesterday, Tauke said Verizon believes universal-service support should be limited voice services and that the contribution method should based on telephone numbers instead of the dwindling long-distance revenues. He also said the disbursement of those funds should be limited in high-cost areas.

“We believe payment should be changed so that it goes only to one carrier in a given geographic territory—the carrier that would probably be designated as the carrier of last resort,” Tauke said. “We don’t think it makes sense to support multiple infrastructures in an area that is hard to serve.”

While the FCC and Congress are expected to tackle the comprehensive universal-service questions next year, Tauke said it “would be great” if lawmakers revamped new accounting rules that have caused E-Rate distributions to schools and libraries to be suspended since August. Under the new accounting rules, these subsidies can be disbursed only when there are USF funds immediately available, whereas the old rules did not require the money to be available until a benefactor provided an invoice.

“We don't see that there's any compelling public interest in having all the money sitting in the pot before the FCC makes a commitment to pay out to schools, libraries or rural [healthcare] companies,” Tauke said.

On other matters, Tauke reiterated Verizon’s desire that policymakers establish clear rules for voice over IP and other IP-based services, establish legally sustainable unbundling rules and revamp telecom “subsidies” inherent in the intercarrier-compensation and universal-service systems.

Tauke said he believes Democratic FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein will not be reappointed before his term expires when Congress adjourns for the year. In addition, Chairman Michael Powell and Republican Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy are expected to leave the FCC during 2005, unless Abernathy succeeds Powell as chairman.

Tauke also named four other candidates to succeed Powell as FCC chairman: FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Administrator Michael Gallagher, former Texas PUC Chairman Rebecca Armendariz Klein and Janice Obuchowski, former NTIA head under the President Bush’s father and co-founder of NextWave Telecom.