NARUC President: Busier 2011 for Telecom Expected
The amount of regulatory activity at the FCC and the convergence of telecom and energy could mean a busier 2011 than 2010 in telecom for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, said Tony Clark, the group’s recently elected president, in an interview. He forecast progress in revamping the Universal Service Fund and the Intercarrier Compensation regime. Meanwhile, smart grid will be a significant issue for state commissioners next year, said the North Dakota Public Service Commissioner.
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There have been some expectations that things might slow down a bit on Capitol Hill, at least early next year, but the FCC is expected to be very busy, Clark said. There’s a window of opportunity that some issues related to Universal Service and Intercarrier Compensation would be resolved, he said. Some rural operators have seen a “dramatic drop” in access to funds, which would encourage regulators to seek some resolution, he said. On the flip side, some states are concerned about the cost of the fund, he said, and there could be a compromise between the two worlds.
Smart grid review would be a significant undertaking for NARUC in the new year, Clark said. Things like consumer privacy and access to data would take up a lot of state commissioners’ time, he said. State regulators are also expected to focus on issues related to network security, reliability and critical infrastructure protection, he said. Rate design is also critical, he said. There have been a lot of discussions on smart grid technical standards, he noted, urging state regulators to get involved in the standard process. States won’t be writing the standards, but a technical standard for smart grid eventually becomes a commercial standard which includes interfacing with the consumer rate structure, he said. That’s clearly within state regulators’ scope, he said. State commissions are at the nexus of different industries that cross paths on smart grid, and state bodies are best positioned to deal with the issue, he said.
Though the mid-term election has resulted in more Republican state commissioners, there might not be a major shift in telecom policy, Clark said. Telecom tends not to be a partisan issue at states, though individual state commissioners would approach federal regulators and legislators with a particular issue that sometimes NARUC may not have a strong position on, he said. State telecom issues are more regional in nature and have a lot to do with population and geography, he said. Especially on things like Universal Service, it’s typical that NARUC wouldn’t have a specific nationwide recommendation because it’s very much a geographic and regional issue, he said.
Meanwhile, there’s evidence that the FCC and the Congress have been swayed by resolutions passed by NARUC, Clark said. He cited the FCC’s granting of a request by NARUC members Kansas and Nebraska commissions to allow the assessment of VoIP providers for state universal service programs. The group has recently urged the Congress to direct funding for stimulus grant oversight and the FCC to address the traffic pumping issue.
NARUC could also be looking at some tax issues, Clark said. The group supports low tax rates on dividends, which is a provision of the tax cut extension package that was recently signed into law (CD Dec 20 p9). Higher dividends means more difficulties in accessing capital for telecom companies and others, he said. That eventually translates into rates and becomes a consumer matter, he said.