Senators argue against reverse auctions for universal service

A bipartisan group of senators led Sen Byron Dorgan (D-ND) has written Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin urging him to abandon a plan to use reverse auctions to award universal service fund support to eligible telecom carriers in rural areas. They wrote, “Reverse auctions leave too many unanswered questions about stranded investment and the lack of incentive for a carrier to improve and expand their network, let alone maintain their current systems. We must not create a race to the bottom. … This would in all likelihood leave Americans living in rural and high-cost areas without adequate, affordable communications services.... Reverse auctions would ultimately do little more than stymie the innovative communications infrastructure build out that is envisioned by our national universal service policy. Such an untested mechanism is far too risky to impose as we charge communications providers with the responsibility of providing advanced communications services to some of the most rural and expensive-to-serve areas of the country." They also let Chairman martin know that they support a separate FCC proposal to eliminate a rule that gives wireless carriers high-cost USF support equal to that given to landline telecom carriers in rural locales.
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