Dec. 12, 2007 — The Legislature has passed an amendment clarifying V.I. law to grease the skids for cell-phone companies in the territory to receive millions of dollars from the federal Universal Service Fund.
The amendment, passed last week on St. Thomas, came just days after the Public Services Commission (PSC) postponed a vote on granting telecommunications company Centennial Communications status to receive roughly $1.2 million in USF monies. The amount of USF money available is expected to drop substantially for applications filed after Dec. 31. At its Nov. 29 meeting, PSC Chairman Joseph Boschulte cited a need to clarify several factual matters, including the extent of the PSC's legal authority to grant eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) status to cell-phone carriers. (See "PSC Delays Vote on Wireless Provider.")
Jorge Bauermeister, an attorney for Centennial, conceded at that meeting the text of the V.I. law may be ambiguous.
"We would support any move by the Legislature to clarify the Virgin Islands code regarding this," he said. "But time is running out."
The USF is a Federal Communications Commission-controlled program designed to bring better telecommunications services to rural and insular areas. Funds must be spent on phone service in the territory.
Vitelco receives USF funds, but no wireless, cell-phone carriers in the territory does. Many stateside jurisdictions, though not all, give cell-phone companies status to receive USF funds. For the money to flow to the islands, Centennial would need to be certified by the commission as a competitive ETC.
The amendment, sponsored by Sens. James Weber III and Basil Ottley Jr., was attached to an unrelated bill and approved Dec.5. It specifically empowers the PSC to grant ETC status to cell-phone service providers and gives it power to exercise continuing oversight over wireless phone service providers who have requested ETC status. It gives the PSC authority to grant and withdraw ETC status based on the particular company's quality of service, and to ensure that companies receiving these funds do in fact only spend them locally and only on phone-service infrastructure.
It also directs the PSC to act quickly on all such applications and clarifies that no formal hearing is necessary before granting the application.
"The PSC thought only the FCC could do this," Weber told the Source earlier week. "We wanted to make it really clear they have the authority. … As the funds must be spent in the territory, it is in everyone's interest to make this happen."
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