A report published on September 20 by Mr. Tony Clark and Ms. Monica Martinez connects the reshaping of the competitive landscape in communications services since the mid-1990s with the need for eliminating regulatory mandates that can no longer be justified in today's marketplace. "The More Things Change, the More Things Need to Change: Why New Realities Require New Rules," is written by two former state public utility commissioners and published by USTelecom.
The occasion for the report is the FCC's establishing of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund for funding universal service for high-speed broadband via a proposed two-phase reverse auction framework. As Mr. Clark and Ms. Martinez explain, as the FCC increases competitive awarding of universal service subsidies, it should eliminate unfunded mandates on incumbent local exchange carriers that no longer receive such subsidies. They outline a handful of reform proposals that merit careful consideration by the FCC: - "[C]larify that any regulatory obligations placed on a service provider in a particular territory no longer apply to that provider when it stops receiving an associated subsidy";
- "[S]treamline or eliminate rules that prevent carriers from discontinuing service and exiting the market where competitive alternatives exist, particularly when the competitor is being funded by the government with support previously earmarked for the incumbent";
- "[E]liminate any ETC obligations where a provider is no longer receiving a subsidy through a Universal Service program"; and
- "[S]tate [carrier-of-last-resort] COLR obligations should be preempted where an incumbent provider loses the federal subsidy, unless the state steps in to make up the difference."
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