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Please provide comments to the issue below as part of the 2012 WCB cost model virtual workshop for inclusion in the record. Comments are moderated for conformity to the workshop’s guidelines.

Background

The Bureau believes most of the hardware necessary in each wire center is captured by the requirements for voice or inter-office transport.

Hybrid Cost Proxy Model: The HCPM envisions a network that requires a circuit switch for voice calls, digital loop carriers (DLCs), and serving area interfaces (SAIs). The HCPM also includes the costs associated with the main distribution frame (MDF), the purchase and installation of power equipment costs, and appropriate engineering costs.

CQBAT: The CQBAT model includes costs for an all-IP network, including routers, Ethernet switches, and rack space, in addition to costs for buildings, land, and power. For fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) configurations, the cost of optical line terminators (OLTs) is also included.

Please provide comments to the issue below as part of the 2012 WCB cost model virtual workshop for inclusion in the record. Comments are moderated for conformity to the workshop’s guidelines.

Background

Hybrid Cost Proxy Model: The Commission determined that nationwide default values were generally more appropriate than company-specific values. Accordingly, the HCPM uses nationwide average values for estimating plant-specific operations expenses. The Commission found that averages, rather than company-specific data, are better predictors of the forward-looking costs that should be supported by the federal high-cost mechanism. The Commission also determined that the use of nationwide averages would reward efficient companies and provide the proper incentives to inefficient companies to become more efficient over time, and that this reward system would drive the national average toward the cost that the competitive firm could achieve.

CQBAT: While the CQBAT model also does not use company-specific values to predict forward-looking costs, it does use regional cost adjustment factors to capture variation in labor and materials costs by three-digit ZIP codes.

In today's connected world, it's surprising to learn that more than 60% of doctors use a fax machine as a predominant form of clinician communication and only 1 in 5 doctors use a smartphone as part of their work. While email and smartphone use alone could create greater efficiencies for doctors, the promise of mHealth goes far beyond this to encompass innovations such as remote patient monitors that automatically send diagnostic information – such as fetal heart rate, blood pressure, or glucose levels – back to doctors and databases.

These innovations not only have the potential to save money across the U.S. health care system, but they could fundamentally transform patient care and improve health care delivery.

The co-chairs of the mHealth Task Force are Dr. Julian Goldman, Medical Director of Biomedical Engineering, Partners Healthcare System; Robert Jarrin, Senior Director of Government Affairs, Qualcomm; and Douglas Trauner, CEO, Health Analytic Services, Inc (TheCarrot.com). The event was moderated by Robert Atkinson, President, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

Imagine for a moment what your life would be like without a phone, corded or wireless. How would you contact emergency services if there was a fire or a serious injury? How would you contact a potential new employer, or keep in touch with a current one? How would you contact your utility company about a power outage, or a doctor about your sick child? How would you keep in touch with your loved ones and your community?; In this day and age, telecommunications services are a real necessity, and not being able to afford them is a real liability.

Since the creation of the Lifeline benefit program in 1984, millions of low-income Americans have depended on it to make basic telecommunications services affordable to them. Without this program, countless households would be deprived of contact with health care providers and government services, access to work opportunities, and communications with family and their communities.; As more and more essential functions and services of our economy and our public sectors shift to wireless and online formats, the Lifeline program has been reformed to help low-income Americans overcome obstacles to Internet access and wireless communications. As part of this effort, the FCC has adopted an express goal for the program of ensuring availability of broadband for all low-income Americans, allowing Lifeline support for bundled services plans combining voice and broadband or packages including optional calling features.