NARUC Telecom Committee Approves Numbering Resolution

NARUC’s Telecom Committee approved a proposed resolution Monday aimed at forestalling U.S. phone number exhaustion. Also during state utility regulators’ meeting in Washington, telecom industry officials urged state commissioners to join them in calling on Congress to renew funding for the affordable connectivity program (ACP). Another panel flagged pole attachment issues remaining after a December FCC order (see 2312130044).

NARUC would ask the FCC to update “guidance on how states should bring forward cases of telephone number resource mismanagement or suspected robocalling using rented telephone numbers” through audits under Section 52.15(k) of the Telecom Act, said the draft resolution from Telecom Committee Chair Tim Schram. The proposal, which still requires NARUC board approval, envisions states policing their area codes to ensure numbers aren’t being used for illegal robocalls or other inappropriate practices (see 2402200047). That could conserve numbers and postpone switching to 12-digit dialing, with the U.S. expected to run out of phone numbers by 2051.

No Telecom Committee member opposed the resolution, though Commissioner Karen Charles abstained. The Massachusetts official asked if the $200,000 budgeted annually for FCC numbering audits would cover them. Probably not, replied Maine Public Utilities Commission telecom analyst Michael Johnson, who developed the resolution with other states’ staff. But the agency could draw from its contingency fund or seek more money in the next budget cycle, he said.

It's been more than a decade since the FCC's last numbering audit, said Johnson. “Staff are not calling for mass audits on all the companies, but we do believe there are a couple really bad actors out there” that “should be investigated by the FCC.”

“The one thing that caught my eye,” said Schram, is FCC estimates that a change to 12-digit dialing could cost $270 billion. Consumers would likely have to foot that bill, said the committee chair.

ACP 'Bipartisan' Yet 'Stuck'

ACP supporters “need every commissioner at NARUC to support” continued funding for the program that provides free or discounted broadband to low-income Americans, Incompas President Angie Kronenberg said during a panel Monday. “The politics in Washington are hard right now.”

“I have never seen anything as bipartisan” as funding ACP, but “it’s still stuck,” said Lynn Follansbee, USTelecom vice president-strategic initiatives and partnerships. “This would have been a layup 10 years ago.” Beyond helping consumers, ACP is critical for federal infrastructure, she argued. “It improves the take rate … so that when you’re building to these very rural, very expensive parts of the United States, the availability of the ACP helps the business case for providers to be able to do those builds economically.”

ACP funding advocates’ top target is U.S. senators -- Republicans especially, said Drew Garner, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society director-policy engagement. It may be possible to obtain stopgap funding with a spending bill and avert a potential government shutdown this Friday, he said. “We want as much support as possible as soon as possible.”

Panelists panned suggestions about limiting ACP support to those who never had the internet. It would be hard to tell if they did, and that wouldn’t address the real problem, said TruConnect Chief Compliance Officer Danielle Perry. Because people struggle to pay for internet service from month to month, policymakers should “focus on sustainability and people having consistent internet,” she said. Garner said that supporting only those who never had internet would be like limiting food stamps to “people who had never eaten before.”

But ACP supporters might have to add anti-fraud provisions to gain sufficient congressional support, said Follansbee. USTelecom supports using the national verifier for ACP and is willing to consider other ideas, she said. The association will continue to fight for ACP even if Congress lets it lapse, she said.

TruConnect has talked internally about providing cheap prepaid plans for ACP customers if there’s a funding gap, said Perry. However, supporting "this demographic for two months looks much different" than doing so "for six months or a year,” she said. “We’re trying to find affordable plans that will not put us under as a company.”

Pole Attachment Challenges Continue

Workforce shortages and pole replacement disputes are among continuing challenges delaying broadband deployment in less served areas, said state and industry officials during an earlier panel.

Closing the workforce development gap is a top item for the Kentucky Public Service Commission, said Commissioner Mary Pat Regan, a NARUC Telecom Committee vice chair. The PSC knows how important broadband expansion is but regularly hears about deployment frustrations, she said. The PSC has considered apprenticeships and resource sharing, such as using the same contractors for survey and make-ready, as temporary measures to address workforce gaps, she said. “As we move through this process, we’re going to have to come up with a plan that everyone can agree with.”

It’s tough for pole owners to know how many workers will be needed from one month to the next, said Nirali Patel, USTelecom senior vice president-policy. “You could have multiple attachers simultaneously requesting make-ready” for more than 3,000 poles at once, she said. “But then the next [month] you could have none.” USTelecom has members that own poles and attach equipment. Aryeh Fishman, Edison Electric Institute (EEI) associate general counsel, said utilities need advance notice about when attachments are coming, so they can staff up and manage workflow. And he urged states to pursue workforce development efforts.

Some pole owners use broadband attachment applications as an opportunity to upgrade their infrastructure on attachers’ “dime,” complained Marc Paul, Charter Communications vice president-policy. That’s unfair and foments tense arguments that slow deployment, he said. In contrast, USTelecom “has concerns about continuing efforts by some attachers,” after the FCC’s December pole attachments order, “to try to shift over to pole owners costs for pole replacements solely needed to make room for the new attachment,” said Patel. Internet providers that own poles shouldn’t have to subsidize competitors’ deployments, she said.

Some panelists praised pole replacement funds available in states, including Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina and Texas. State funds “take the argument over money and who owes what out of the mix when pole replacement is needed,” said Paul. However, Patel cautioned against giving more government support to companies that already received federal cash in an FCC auction. Those companies should have accounted for deployment costs when they bid, she said.