The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court, issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Regulatory Bulletin.
TELECOM
Indiana
The Indiana Regulatory Utility Commission declined to open a proceeding to determine whether interconnected VoIP providers should be required to contribute to the Indiana USF (IUSF). The Commission said it would like the opportunity to review data for 2013 before deciding whether to open such a proceeding. Accordingly, it directed Solix to provide an update on billed intrastate retail revenues as part of its 2013 Annual Report to the IUSF.
In April 2013, the Indiana Universal Service Fund Oversight Committee requested that the Commission accept briefs on the issue of whether interconnected VoIP providers should contribute to the IUSF and then make a determination on expanding the base of contributors to include interconnected VoIP providers. The impetus for the request was Solix’s recommendation (as part of the 2012 IUSF Annual Report) that the Commission consider expanding the base in order to counteract recent decreases in billed intrastate retail revenues.
FCC
The FCC announced the dates for filing comments on the impact of recently implemented industry efforts to combat cramming and certain newly released studies. Areas for comment include the efficacy of various industry attempts to combat cramming and whether additional measures to combat wireline or CMRS cramming are necessary and, if so, what those measures might be. Comments are due November 18, 2013; reply comments are due December 2, 2013. See TMI Bulletin dated August 28, 2013.
(I know; you thought the FCC was shut down. However, the Federal Register is still publishing daily and, apparently, is providing notice of items other than those “necessary to safeguard human life, protect property, or provide other emergency services” if they were received prior to the government shutdown.)
