Summary of Department of Interior Comments

DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR
SUMMARY OF COMMENTS
submitted by Jim McClellan

The United States Department of the Interior’s Allen P. Stayman, Director of the Office of Insular Affairs, expresses concern that the goals and principles of universal service support mechanisms ensure that Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) are included in all aspects of universal service.

He supports the Joint Board and the Commission basing the universal service policies on the seven principles listed in Section 254(g), and that those principles have full application to the CNMI and Guam.

1. The residents of these insular areas should have quality service at just, reasonable, and affordable rates. He supports domestic rate integration for these areas as a means for quality service at affordable rates.
2. Access to advanced telecommunications and information services must include those insular areas. He urges the Commission to seek ways to facilitate access to the distant geography of the islands.
3. Consumers in the insular areas should have access to telecommunications services. They are low income customers in high cost areas.
4. All providers of telecommunications service, including those in the insular areas, should make an equitable and nondiscriminatory contribution to the preservation and advancement of universal service. He supports the inclusion of Guam and the CNMI governments, residents and businesses into the "core" group for universal service.
5. The specific and predictable support mechanisms should be extended to these insular areas.
6. Access to advanced telecommunications services for schools, health care, and libraries must be given to the CNMI and Guam. He supports universal service support for these additional services. Their distant location and small population make access difficult and expensive; therefore, it is imperative that a special effort be made to see that these services are extended.
7. In whatever other principles as the Joint Board and Commission may determine necessary, he asks that special consideration always be given to the insular areas. He supports voice grade network access, touch tone dialing, single party service, emergency services, and access to operator services as "core" services receiving universal service support. He also asks for universal service support to include toll-free access to 800 services and on-line information services for the CNMI and Guam.

Stayman states that it is the responsibility of the United States Government to assist these insular areas achieve economic development, and that telecommunications is a primary basis for such development.