FCC Expected to Extend USF Meetings By One Day

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The FCC is expected to announce that parties who have been meeting with FCC staffers over Universal Service Reform will have an extra day to get those meetings taken.

According to sources, the cut-off for those outside meetings on the item, which would customarily be seven days before the Oct. 27 scheduled vote on the FCC's USF reform proposals, or Thursday (Oct. 20), is expected to be moved to Oct. 21.

Staffers have been in back-to-back meetings for days as industry players made their pitches for changes to the proposal, including setting aside more money for the broadband mobility fund and excising the right of first refusal for incumbent telcos.

Following all the negotiating and meetings on FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's initial draft, a second draft is expected to be issued by this weekend, according to various sources.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.