KOSU: FCC wants to freeze wireless communications budget low populations areas

(EDITOR’S NOTE: CHECK WIRES TO MAKE SURE THE FCC HAS NOT ENACTED THE CAP BEFORE AIRING.) 

Suggested Host intro: Getting rural cell phone service in parts of Oklahoma may soon become harder. The Federal Communications Commission wants to freeze the budget for a program that provides funding for wireless communications in areas with low populations. Matt Laslo reports from Capitol Hill.  

NARR: Many areas in Oklahoma currently are listed as having poor cell phone coverage. If the budget for the Universal Service Fund gets capped, those areas might not get the new tower they need. The fund was started in nineteen thirty four. Its stated goal was to provide people in rural America with the same access to phones as people in urban areas.

Since then it has morphed to include wireless technologies and broadband, and even healthcare. Republican Representative Tom Cole says the fund is vital and opposes the cap.

COLE4-MODERN You can’t have a modern economy if you don’t have all the technology -  broadband, cell phones and all that stuff, operational in those towns. It is the twenty first century equivalent of trying to run a town without a phone line or without electric power.

Republican Representative Frank Lucas says the program has benefited the whole nation.  

LUCAS2-COUNTRY After all I think a big part of what has helped the economic engine of growth help drive this country for half a century are things like Universal service, where we make sure that the infrastructure – the services are there so that everyone can prosper, everyone can grow, and that means telecommunications, that means a variety of things.  

But FCC Chairman Kevin Martin says the program has exploded over the past six years. 

MARTIN1-GROWTH RATE Since I came to the commission – the first year I was there they got a million dollars – last year it was a billion dollars. At that type of growth rate I am concerned we can not continue to support that

The FCC says the program could cost eight billion dollars in 2010 if they don’t address the problem now. The cap they are proposing is temporary. While it is in place the FCC would reexamine the program and look for ways to reform it. David La Furia represents a number of rural wireless carriers. He says it would be better for the companies and citizens if they could sustain a profitable business in rural areas. But La Furia says the populations in parts of Oklahoma are too sparse.

LEFAURIA2-ECONOMICS Every company is out to make a profit – if it were profitable out in those rural areas without this support money these carriers would have done it by now. This support money gives these wireless companies the ability to build these facilities and once they are built an opportunity to go out and make a profit. 

Thomas Navin is Chief of the FCC’s Wire Line Competition Bureau. He says lawmakers aren’t focusing on the rising budget.

NAVIN1-LEFT BEHIND Representatives from rural areas of the country are most concerned that their areas do not get left behind other areas with regard to state-of-the-art communications services.

Navin says other services, like increasing broadband infrastructure, might benefit people more than wireless towers. Congressman Cole says he understands spending money wisely, but says he will need further convincing. 

COLE3-SHOW ME I guess in this instance I would belong to the show me caucus. They would have to prove to me pretty convincingly that one this was necessary, two, that this is the only way they can achieve what they we’re trying to achieve and three that it would not undermine us getting good cell phone coverage in rural parts of our state

Recently the FCC enacted spending reforms to the healthcare part of the fund, but the reforms don’t affect the technology side of it. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are urging the FCC to cut down on wasteful spending … but not to cut the cell phone program’s funding.

The FCC can enact the spending cap at any time. But currently they are weighing comments from lawmakers and citizens concerned with the issue. 

For KOSU. I’m Matt Laslo on Capitol Hill.