Teleseminar Audio CD: Making the High Cost Fund Decision

Whether you missed the original broadcast of this teleseminar or you attended and just want to listen to the presentation again, order the CD of this event. Use it for yourself, or better yet, set up a training session for other members of your staff at a time that’s most convenient for you. State utility commissions and NASUCA members pay only a shipping and handling fee of $15. You can expect your CD about 10 days after you place your order.

Making the High Cost Fund Decision:
How to Assess Your State’s Needs
 

Original Air Date: January 27, 2010

For almost two decades, high cost funds have been helping state commissions provide consumers with ubiquitous telephone service at affordable rates. More than 20 states have created these high cost funds, which are primarily supported by surcharges on intrastate telecommunications services.

Several recent competitive and regulatory developments have put conventional telephone companies at risk. While millions of customers have abandoned their landline service, new wireless and VoIP competitors are gaining substantial market share in areas overbuilt for cable and other broadband facilities. At the same time, traditional access revenues have declined and federal universal service subsidies are being criticized. These trends make it increasingly difficult for local exchange providers and call into question the survival of landline voice service in high-cost areas. The result has been an increased interest in state high cost funds.

If you work for a state commission, you know that the problems you face are more critical than ever before. While these changes have increased the need for state high cost funding, Congress, the FCC, and the federal courts have limited your ability to raise funds for universal service. They’ve even imposed restrictions on how that support can be spent.

So where do you go from here?

Find out what’s next when you purchase the CD of NRRI’s latest teleseminar, “Making the High Cost Fund Decision: How to Assess Your State’s Needs,” which originally aired on January 27, 2010. Get the tools you need to help your state commission decide whether or not you need a fund. Then listen as our experts offer proven strategies for designing and managing your own fund—and how to use that funding to achieve your goals.

Is your state commission thinking about reducing intercarrier “access” charges? Are you experiencing a decline in revenue that’s putting you at risk of failure? And are you seeing rates for rural customers that make even the most basic services unaffordable? If you answered yes to even one of these questions, you’ll want to evaluate the risks and rewards of establishing a high cost support fund. This teleseminar will help you do just that.

First, Peter Bluhm presents a comprehensive review of the latest paper from NRRI that analyzes state high cost funds and the issues surrounding them. Then listen as our panel of experts provides insights into how federal and state regulators view universal service policy areas and how developments in the states are affecting the need for such programs.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn when you listen to this in-depth, 90-minute teleseminar:

• How to evaluate your state’s need for a high cost funding program using key considerations such as environmental factors, trends in incumbent revenues, and cost differences within the state.
• The drawbacks of a high cost funding program.
• “Implicit subsidy”: what it is and why it’s relevant to universal service.
• How to determine which carriers are eligible for funds.
• How to decide which of the four methods for distributing funds—hold-harmless, cost-based, bill credits, and auctions—is right for your state.
• How to design a high cost program: where to start and what questions you should address first.

Hear what the experts have to say on the subject when you purchase the CD of the latest NRRI teleseminar, “Making the High Cost Fund Decision: How to Assess Your State’s Needs,” which originally aired on January 27, 2010.

Seminar panel of experts:

Peter Bluhm, Consultant, Rolka, Loube, Saltzer Associates
John D. Burke, Board Member, Vermont Public Service Board
Lorraine Kenyon, Chief of the Common Carrier Section, Regulatory Commission of Alaska

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