Comments on CC Docket No. 96-45

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order

Establishing Joint Board on Universal Service

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order Establishing a Joint Board was designed, in part, to implement the Congressional Directives set out in Section 254 of the Communications Act of 1934, as added to by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The Rulemaking is designed to do the following: (1) define the services that will be supported by Federal universal service support mechanisms; (2) define those support mechanisms; and (3) otherwise recommend changes to the regulations to implement the universal service directives of the 1996 Act.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 defined universal service as an evolving level of telecommunications services that the Commission (FCC) shall establish periodically under this section, taking into account advances in telecommunications and information technologies and services. The Joint Board will recommend, and the Commission will establish, the actual definition of the services that are to be supported by the Federal universal service support mechanisms. The established definition is to consider the extent to which the services are essential to education, public health, or public safety; have, through the operation of market choices by customers, been subscribed to by a substantial majority of residential customers; are being deployed in public telecommunications networks by carriers; and are consistent with the public interest.

The Act states that every telecommunications carrier that provides interstate telecommunications services shall contribute, on an equitable and nondiscriminatory basis, to the specific, predictable, and sufficient mechanism established by the Commission to preserve and advance universal service. In addition, the Act states that a carrier that receives federal universal fund support shall use that support only for the provision, maintenance, and upgrading of facilities and services for which the support is intended. Any such support should be explicit and sufficient.

The South Carolina Public Service Commission would like to make the following points concerning this Notice of Proposed rulemaking:

A) The National Exchange Carrier Association, Inc. should continue to administer the interstate fund.

B) Increased competition within the telecommunications industry will tend to make current universal service policies less sustainable and, therefore, necessitates modification of the existing process.

C) The Commission is concerned that under a more competitive environment that the implicit support (generally resulting from any existing subsidy situations for various services) that exist within the interstate universal service concept will not be sustainable and, therefore, support would need to be made explicit (earmarked more specifically for those services defined under the concept of universal service).

D) The support mechanism for interstate universal service should provide sufficient funding to cover all those costs associated with providing universal service as defined and approved by the Federal Communications Commission including any related mandates incorporated within the Telecommunications Act.

E) It would appear to be appropriate for any carrier, either local exchange carriers and/or long distance carriers, which provide service to the relevant customers to be designated as carriers of last resort for the given service regions.

F) Educational specialists in conjunction with the educational services required in the marketplace should assist in the determination of the educational services which should be included in universal service. Health care specialists in conjunction with the health care services required in the marketplace should assist in the determination of the health care services which should be included in universal service.

G) The universal service process should allow the marketplace through the requirements of consumers to determine the components which comprise the definition of universal service over time.

H) The universal process should include sufficient provisions for assisting persons with low incomes and/or disabilities, and the Commission would recommend that a process similar to the existing lifeline mechanism be used to help achieve this objective.

I) The costs that go into the derivation of the costs related to the provision of universal service for high cost providers should be explicitly identified by the provider.

J) The definition of universal service should, at least, include the following:

a) single party, voice grade, incoming and outgoing access to the public switched network and usage within a local calling area;

b) touch-tone capability;

c) annual local directory;

d) access to operator services;

e) access to Telecommunications Relay Service and other services designed for persons with disabilities, such as Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS);

f) access to emergency services, such as E911;

g) equal access, as appropriate, to interexchange carrier services as defined by the Federal Communications Commission for interstate access services.