[April 28, 2013] 'Greenfield' Order is Step Forward for CAF Program Tweet (Targeted News Service Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) WASHINGTON, April 22 -- The U.S. Telecom Association issued the following news release: Background: The Federal Communications Commission's Universal Service/Intercarrier Compensation Transformation Order delegated to the Wireline Competition Bureau the task of adopting a cost model to estimate the cost of providing voice and broadband services and to determine the level of Connect America Fund (CAF) support that the commission will provide to ensure that voice and broadband services are available in rural areas of the country where there is no private business case to provide these services. Today, the bureau has released an order specifying that it will use a modeling platform based on a "greenfield" approach. The following statement is from USTelecom Senior Vice President, Law and Policy, Jon Banks: "The greenfield approach that the bureau adopts in today's order will help minimize CAF expenses by modeling the costs of providing voice and broadband service that a most-efficient competitor would experience. This approach is consistent with commission precedent and broadly accepted economic principles. For example, the commission used this approach in its current high-cost program for larger carriers. We believe this order can bring an economically rational approach to determining the right amount of CAF support to ensure essential voice and broadband services are available to consumers and businesses in areas of the country where there would be no service otherwise. However, this order is just one step to getting the commission's CAF program up-and-running, and we look forward to working with the commission and other interested parties to bring about a speedy completion of a balanced program to ensure that voice and broadband services are available in rural areas of the country." TNS MD66130427-4321270 61MariaDonald (c) 2013 Targeted News Service [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]