A State Labor Department investigator, Ron Gumeringer, announced his intention to challenge Commissioner Kevin Cramer for a seat on the Public Service Commission. Mr. Gumeringer is the first declared Democratic candidate for the job and will be seeking his party's endorsement at their convention in April.

Mr. Gumeringer said during his announcement that, "The consumers of North Dakota want and deserve a Public Service Commissioner who understands the plight of everyday working families and who will fight for them."

The Democratic hopeful is a native of Esmond and sought the Democratic endorsement two years ago to run against incumbent Commissioner Susan Wefald. Democrats chose former State Representative Bob Stefonowicz, D-Wildrose, as their candidate instead.

Commissioner Cramer joined the Public Service Commission on August 1 when Governor John Hoeven appointed him to succeed longtime incumbent Leo Reinbold.

Mr. Gumeringer said his priorities include promoting wind energy development.

The National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA) Board of Directors elected Bill Hegmann, General Manager of the Southwest Arkansas Telephone Cooperative as their board chairman. Tim Dupic of Toledo Telephone Company in Washington state, his challenger, was re-elected as vice-chairman. The NECA Board of Directors has 15 members--ten directors represent three membership divisions, five represent all members (outside directors).

Federal Communications Commission rules establish Board size and representative groupings. The groupings are Subset 1 (Bell Operating Companies--two representatives); Subset 2 (Other telcos with revenues of $40 million or more--two representatives); Subset 3 (All remaining telcos--six representatives; Outside Directors (Non-telco Directors representing all subsets--five representatives). Each subset nominates and elects its own representatives. Outside Directors are elected by the entire membership.

Wally Beyer, a Bismarck resident and former RUS Administrator, is a member of the Outside Director subset.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reports that since wireless phone number porting began on November 24, 2003 the agency has received 4,734 informal complaints about wireless local number portability as of the third week in January.

Most of the complaints, according to an agency press release, concern alleged delays in porting numbers from one wireless carrier to another. A much smaller number of complaints, just over 5 percent of the total, involve delays in porting numbers from wireline carriers to wireless carriers.

The carriers mentioned in at least 100 complaints are: AT&T Wireless (2297); Sprint PCS (1197); Verizon Wireless (739); Cingular Wireless (699); T-Mobile (625); Nextel (322); Qwest (195); ALLTEL (119). Many of the complaints concern more than one carrier so the total number of complaints received is smaller than the number of times a carrier is mentioned in a complaint.

Michael Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), told an audience in early December that Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) may be able to be delivered cheap enough so that it might negate the need for universal service subsidies in the future. "If the goal (of universal service) is achieved, you don't need a government program just to have one; you need it for a specific purpose," Powell said.

According to RCR Wireless News, "The Universal Service Fund ‘will be with us for a long time, and we will work our way through protecting the pots of money, but if every American had voice over the Internet for $30 a month, what is the fund for? Aren't you delivering what the fund was established for?', Powell was quoted as saying. "Forget the fund. What are the goals? And let's achieve the goals and then decide whether the fund is still needed."

Powell participated in a wide-ranging discussion on issues before the FCC, including wireless regulation. He said, "You can really understand our approach to wireless if you understand our approach to regulation in general." He said that regulators need to be humble. "This is not the space for the government to take over. This is the space where you let American ingenuity take over."

ZAINA NAMED CEO OF USAC

The USAC Board of Directors unanimously recommended the selection of Lisa Zaina to replace Cheryl Parrino as USAC CEO.

Prior to serving on Commissioner Adelstein's staff, Zaina was VP for Industry and Regulatory Affairs of Shenandoah Telecommunications Company in Edinburg, Virginia. She also worked for Wallman Strategic Consulting, OPASTCO and a prior stint at the FCC in the Common Carrier Bureau.

Verizon Wireless said this month that it spent $27 million to improve its network in South Dakota during 2003, according to a company press release. The wireless carrier, which is the largest in the State, said that it had upgraded all of its cell sites to digital technology, activated eight new cell sites and added capacity to 44 sites to enhance use on its system.

Verizon said that it will add 16 new cell sites in 2004, as well as providing four portable cells on wheels (cows) in the State for special events such as the annual Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis and emergency purposes.

The Federal Communications Commission has slapped a California company, FAX.com, with a record-breaking $5.4 million fine for sending hundreds of FAX messages in violation of the FCC's junk-fax rules. The FCC said the company had committed 489 violations of the regulations that bar the transmission of unsolicited FAX messages. The agency fined the company $11,000 for each violation. It was the maximum allowed under the law.

FAX.com sends one or two page advertisements, according to the Washington Post, from a variety of clients, including travel companies, penny stocks and sellers of ink-jet-printer cartridges for FAX machines, to thousands of FAX machines around the country. It recently lost a $2.2 million decision to a Washington, D.C. law firm who said it received more than 1,500 FAX messages in a three hour period.

FAX.com has argued that the FCC's rules barring transmission of unsolicited FAX messages are unconstitutional, a violation of the First Amendment right to free speech. The FCC put the company on notice that it faced stiff penalties for sending unwanted faxes in 2001, but it did not issue a final decision while FAX.com fought the agency's decision in Federal Court. Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit rejected FAX.com's First Amendment arguments, clearing the FCC to finalize its fine against the company.

The decision to lift the suspension helped WorldCom, according to the Washington Post, clear another hurdle as it attempts to recover from an $11 billion accounting scandal that forced it into bankruptcy in 2002. The company plans to come out of its bankruptcy proceedings sometime this year under the name of MCI, which is its current long distance subsidiary.

D.C. Council members said the legislation is necessary to help curb automobile accidents by forcing drivers to think about using their cell phones more safely. Although many jurisdictions across the country have similar laws, the only statewide ban exists in New York.

The mayor, Anthony A. Williams, said he supports the legislation and will sign it. The bill still requires approval from Congress.

Cell phone industry lobbyists and some highway safety advocates also objected. They argued that there is not sufficient research to show that such measures have reduced automobile accidents.

America Online said that it lost 2.2 million subscribers in 2003 and 399,000 subscribers during the last three months of the year, while every other business segment at parent Time Warner grew during the same period.

The quarterly decline in subscribers at the Internet firm would have been greater except AOL included 431,000 nonpaying customers on free trials or retention programs in its customer totals. When those figures are taken into account, according to the Washington Post, America Online lost 830,000 paying subscribers in the quarter.

The contribution factor is a reduction from the third quarter of 2003 rate of 9.2 percent and the second quarter in a row that the contribution factor has decreased.

Contributions to the universal service fund are determined using a contribution factor that the FCC updates quarterly. Carriers may not recover, through a universal service line-item fee on customer's bills, amounts above the prescribed factor.

Polar now offers high-speed broadband through their wireless system with towers in Grafton, Grand Forks, Lakota, Northwood, Larimore and Robbin, Minnesota. When the system is completed, Polar's broadband expansion will cover over 90 percent of its territory.

The Iowa Utilities Board has adopted amendments to its rights-of-way rules proposed by the Small Utility Group and the Iowa railroads that add insurance requirements and a definition of a small utility to the current rules, according to TR's State NewsWire. The insurance amendment reduces the coverage required by small utilities. Under the new rule, the liability coverage limits will be $1million for small utilities crossing the railroad rights-of-way, as opposed to the $5 million required for larger utilities.

In addition, the railroad protective liability insurance limit will be $2 million per occurrence and $4 million aggregate for small utilities. "Such coverage shall be required only during the period of construction, repair, or replacement of the facilities and may be provided by a blanket railroad protective liability insurance policy provided that the coverage, including the coverage limits, applies separately to each individual crossing on each individual railroad," the rule states. Conversely, the railroad's liability would be $4 million per occurrence and $6 million aggregate for larger utilities.

A small utility is defined as a "public utility and all affiliates of the public utility that collectively serve fewer than 20,000 customers."

The board adopted the rules in May regarding crossing railroad rights-of-way, which were the result of an "extensive, multiyear collaboration between the railroads and the utilities." The parties could not, however, reach complete agreement on the rules' content. When it adopted the rules, the board said it expected the railroads and utilities to continue discussions.

A wide rollout of high-speed Internet access by private industry would create 1.2 million new jobs nationally and additional revenue that would counteract the economic doldrums currently "crippling" many State governments, a new study by Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) reported.

The survey, conducted by CSE's Freedom Works Foundation, says State governments, businesses, and consumers would all benefit from increased broadband Internet deployment because it would create demand for the production of fiber-optic lines as well as their installation and support. In addition, jobs in other industries would be created by an expanded broadband consumer base.

"The information technology revolution drove national economic growth and productivity in the 1990's," said Wayne Brough, the foundation's chief economist and author of the report, "State Economies Can Benefit from Broadband Deployment." "Yet, state by state, the telecommunications industry that made this possible is struggling. Broadband deployment will revive the telecom and technology sectors and help put our States on a sound financial footing."

The survey states the FCC needs to do more to remove barriers to broadband deployment. Reducing regulation would cause a boom in the technology sector and would boost State growth. Copies of the study are available at: www.cse.org

The licenses acquired include the Minnesota 10 Rural Service Area, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro A-2 cellular licenses, and the Mankato-Fairmont and Rochester-Austin-Albert Lea Basic Trading Area (BTA) PCS licenses. Western Wireless will begin providing service to these wireless customers immediately.

WorldCom filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2002 after acknowledging substantial accounting fraud. During the last 18 months, according to the Washington Post, revenue has steadily declined as the company has faced increased competition from wireless carriers and large local phone companies that have won permission to enter the long distance industry.

The company already has cut more than 22,000 jobs since filing for bankruptcy. Most recently, it laid off 5,000 people, primarily in corporate and administrative divisions last February.

The Commission said, "We find that special circumstances warrant a limited deviation from the November 24 deadline for carriers operating in the top 100 metropolitan service areas but serving less than 2 percent of the nation's telephone lines. Specifically, we recognize that the covered carriers' networks have technological limitations that cannot be resolved immediately to comply with the wireline-to-wireless porting requirement. In order to offer intermodal portability to their subscribers, these smaller carriers must acquire the hardware and software necessary to provide porting, make the necessary network upgrades and ensure that their upgraded networks work reliably and accurately."

No North Dakota community is in the top 100 metropolitan service areas (MSA's). The closest community in the top 100 is the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

"VoIP is the most significant, fundamental new technology shift in telecommunications in decades and will deliver tremendous value to all customers by leveraging efficiencies and advanced communications capabilities of IP-based technology," said AT&T CEO David Dorman.

Current plans call for AT&T to begin offering the service to consumers in several metropolitan markets in the first quarter of 2004 and for the service to be available in the top-100 U.S. markets by the end of 2004.

The Federal Communications Commission in year-end action adopted new rules they say will strengthen the administration of the Schools and Libraries program. At the same time, the agency said that almost $420 million in unused E-Rate money from 1999, 2000, and 2001 will be carried forward to the current funding year.

In adopting the Third Report and Order and Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FCC said the changes will make the administration of the Schools and Libraries program as straightforward as possible for participants, while also ensuring the continued integrity of the program by strengthening the procedural safeguards.

In the order, the FCC prohibits the transfer of equipment that has been purchased with universal service discounts to other locations for three years after its purchase, with limited exceptions; creates a more formal and transparent process for updating annually the list of services eligible for support; and, limits support for upgrading or replacing internal connections to no more than twice every five years, but exempts basic maintenance services from this restriction.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced last week it had raised almost $119 million after concluding an auction of licenses for wireless video and Internet services. Cablevision's VOOM satellite service was the high bidder spending $84.6 million for licenses that cover markets like New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Cleveland, among others.

South.com, in which EchoStar is a minority owner, won 37 licenses for $27.7 million. It won licenses that cover Boston, Washington, D.C., Houston, Denver and San Diego.

The auction concluded with 10 bidders winning 192 licenses.

A Iowa House of Representatives committee has approved a measure to ban camera-equipped cell phones in locker or dressing rooms. Incidents around the State, including one recently at a restaurant bathroom in Sioux City, have prompted lawmakers to crack down on cell phone cameras in places like health clubs and school locker rooms, according to the Waterloo Courier.

The bill would make it a simple misdemeanor punishable by a $100 fine for anyone who uses a phone with the camera feature in locker rooms, dressing rooms or other public places where the public may disrobe, even if the cell phone user doesn't use the camera.

A South Dakota legislative committee killed legislation this week that would have prohibited teenagers from using cell phones on South Dakota roads. The legislation would have barred those with instructional or restricted permits from using cell phones while driving.

A State trooper testified that the measure would have been hard to enforce. Officers would not know if drivers using cell phones had instructional or restricted permits unless they stopped them and checked their licenses, he said.

The National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA) has released a study showing the number of rural local exchange carriers offering Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service has increased 46 percent in the last two years.

NECA recently published "Fulfilling the Digital Dream: A Report on the Technology of Small and Rural Telephone Companies". Their research found that approximately 814 rural telcos in the nation now offer DSL. Those companies said they were deploying the technology at such a fast pace to meet growing customer demand.

Feb. 24-26:
Telephone AT&S Conference
Bismarck, N.D.

Mar. 2:
NDATC Board Meeting
Statewide Boardroom
Mandan, N.D.

Mar. 7-9:
NTCA Telecom Executive Forum
Albuquerque, N.M.

Mar. 21-24:
Minnesota Telecom Alliance
Annual Convention
Minneapolis, MN

Mar. 22-24:
NTCA Legislative Conference
Washington, D.C.

April 6:
NDATC Board Meeting
Statewide Boardroom
Mandan, N.D.

April 7-8:
NDTA Annual Meeting
Ramkota Hotel
Bismarck, N.D.

April 25-27:
NTCA PRNEt Spring Seminar
Orlando, FL

May 10-13:
Tri-State Operations Conference
Holiday Inn
Fargo, N.D.