Big Cable Likes Boucher USF Bill

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association plans to reaffirm its general support for the brand of Universal Service Fund (USF) reform proposed by House Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA).

In testimony prepared for a planned hearing on the Boucher bill, NCTA's James Assey plans to say that the bill is not perfect including leaving questions about the ultimate size of the fund, but suggests H.R. 5828 is a compromise cable operators can live with and a good first step on the road to fund reform.

One thing NCTA calls significant is that the bill funds deployment of broadband without requiring it to be "classified or regulated as a Title II telecommunications service." Assey calls the bill a "sound first step" in modernizing the fund, saying that it "recognizes that government subsidies are neither necessary nor appropriate in competitive areas where the marketplace is working," though NCTA would prefer the bill make that point a bit more definitively by making broadband support "expressly limited to unserved areas." As with the billions in broadband stimulus funding being handed out, NCTA is concerned that government money will be used to underwrite competition to existing cable broadband service rather than to those who have no service at all.

The bill does include reducing or eliminating the high-cost fund support in areas where more than 75% of households can get service from a non-incumbent provider, but Assey says the bill should clarify that includes places where at least two competitors can combine to reach that 75%, meaning that there will still be choice among two providers, just not necessarily the same two.