Adelstein Rallies Rural Telecom Group
By: Shira Levine -- America's Network (www.americasnetwork.com)

Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein warned state regulators to consider carefully whether a competitor is eligible for universal service support in rural areas and implied that he hasn’t been pleased with past decisions.

“[State commissions] need to take great care in doing this — greater care, in my opinion, than some have in the recent past,” he told attendees at a luncheon sponsored by the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies (OPASTCO).

Rural telecom groups such as OPASTO and the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association have fought against competitive carriers, particularly wireless providers, being given eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) status, which allows them to draw from the universal service fund. Rural incumbents argue that giving competitors access to the universal service fund will create a shortage, and claim that competitors should not receive as much money from the fund as incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) because their networks are not the same.

Adelstein assured his audience that the FCC and the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service would address the issues of portability of universal service funding, as well as whether competitive carriers should receive funds for new lines as well as those “captured” from the incumbent.

“Clearly, suggesting that competitive carriers cannot get funding for new lines that are not captured from the incumbent calls into question the Commission’s treatment of second lines,” he said.

Adelstein also confirmed his commitment to spectrum reform, calling for smaller wireless license areas and a rewriting of the FCC’s build-out rules, which, according to rural advocates, lead to build-out only in urban areas, leaving rural regions without wireless services.

Wireless services “offer great potential for rural America ,” he said, and the FCC needs to “get spectrum into the hands of community-based providers like you.”

Overall, Adelstein’s comments strengthened his image as an advocate for rural carriers. “Rural America will win in the end,” he said. “Rural America has a friend at the FCC in me, and I’m lucky enough to have friends throughout the heartland.”

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