By Adrianne Kroepsch, CQ Staff

A growing coalition of lawmakers is lobbying the Federal Communications Commission to delay a controversial Nov. 4 vote to overhaul a complicated, but fundamental set of telecommunications regulations.

One hundred members of Congress — 78 from the House and 22 from the Senate — have asked FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin to air his proposal for 60 to 90 days so the public can comment on its specifics.

By all accounts, their protests do not appear to be postponing the FCC action. But ongoing negotiations could shape how far the FCC goes with the order, congressional aides said. Either way, the agency’s vote will have a significant impact on next year’s legislative agenda for telecommunications, they said.

The FCC is working under a court-ordered deadline to justify a 1999 agency decision on the rules under which Internet phone companies use traditional carriers’ lines. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit sent the item back to the agency in July, asking for changes by Nov. 5.

That deadline has sped along this much larger overhaul. Martin wants to make sweeping changes to two pillars of telecommunications regulation, including the pieces remanded by the court.

Martin’s proposal would dramatically update the governance of arcane fees that phone companies pay each other to send calls between networks — a payment system called inter-carrier compensation. It would also reorder the rules under which phone companies receive government subsidies for offering phone service in non-profitable, rural areas, known as the Universal Service Fund.

The two topics — inter-carrier compensation and the fund — are inextricably linked via related regulations. It is nearly impossible to deal with one without impacting the other.

AT&T, Verizon and Qwest Communications Inc. back the upcoming FCC vote, saying the changes are overdue and that they would both gain and lose money under the proposed regulations.

Small and mid-sized carriers such as Embarq Corp. and CenturyTel Inc. are crying foul, however, saying they would take a major hit under the proposed changes and would have to raise phone their customers’ phone bills to recoup their losses.

Congress on the Phone

Most onlookers predict that there will be an FCC vote Nov. 4 despite the calls for delay, but say the details of the proposal are still in flux. Negotiations between the agency and Capitol Hill — and among FCC commissioners themselves — are ongoing, according to congressional aides.

Lawmakers are urging the agency to soften its approach by setting a broad framework for the policy overhaul and moving the specifics of some of the thorniest decisions down the road. At the moment, Martin’s plans would have a hard and fast impact on both inter-carrier compensation and service fund subsidies for phone companies.

If the agency does lighten the proposal, a legislative intervention might be less likely during the next Congress, an aide said. Lawmakers already will have enough telecom work on their hands next year with oversight of the Feb. 17 digital television transition and the expected reauthorization of an expiring satellite TV law (PL 108-447).