Best of Intentions
Budget Bill Clears Congress But Not Without Telecom-Related Controversy
Illinois Latest State to Adopt School/Library Universal Service Discounts
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Title: Best of Intentions
Source: Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com/ (A1)
Author: Quentin Hardy & Bryan Gruley
Issue: Spectrum
Description: Winners of last year's spectrum auctions are having a hard time
paying for them now -- and are threatening to file for bankruptcy. The court
procedures could tie up spectrum licenses -- meant to bring more competition
to wireless telephone, paging, and other services -- for years to come. The
Federal Communications Commission thought it had raised $10.2 billion for
the US Treasury. Now the Commission is hiring bankruptcy lawyers to help
sort through the mess. Long article examines auctions as way to allocate
spectrum.
Title: Budget Bill Clears Congress But Not Without
Telecom-Related Controversy
Source: Telecom AM http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Budget Issues
Description: The budget agreement cleared both houses of Congress yesterday.
Included in the legislation is the return of analog spectrum of
broadcasters, spectrum auctions, and use of universal service funds to
balance the budget. Some legislators criticized the communications policy
provisions in the bill: "So when something doesn't quite add up, what do you
do? Well, in this case you get a different adding machine. You can actually
build an adding machine that adds it up the way you want," said Sen. Byron
Dorgan (D-ND) "So they plug this hole with a plug number, and the plug
number they use in their budget hole is called the universal service fund."
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV) vowed to revisit
the universal service issue and find a way to safeguard the fund.
Title: Illinois Latest State to Adopt School/Library
Universal Service Discounts
Source: Telecom AM http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Universal Service
Description: Illinois joins 28 other states that approved the intrastate
educational and library universal service discounts.
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