The FCC's Half-Shoveled Sidewalk: Forbearance and Universal Service

At its December open meeting, the Federal Communications Commission acted on a petition for forbearance that was filed by USTelecom. While the FCC granted some of the relief that was sought, it denied USTelecom’s request for forbearance from universal service obligations in places where price cap incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) receive no high-cost universal service support. In explaining this denial, the FCC sounds an awful lot like a kid explaining why he shoveled only part of the sidewalk.

Under the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the FCC has a duty to ensure that sufficient universal service support is available to support the universal service requirements that the Commission may adopt under the Act. As Commissioner Pai pointed out in his separate statement, the FCC has utterly shirked this responsibility. By his calculations based on the FCC’s own cost model, there is a more than $1 billion gap between the cost of serving these areas and the expected revenues from doing so. If the FCC doesn’t want to fund universal service obligations in these areas, it should just get rid of them, as USTelecom asked it to do. Unfortunately, the FCC appears determined to try to maintain the obligations without taking responsibility for them. I think it’s time for someone – like an appellate court or Congress – to tell them to pick up the shovel and do the job right.