ExParte Comment - Ellig-McTigue

January 26, 2006 Federal Communications Commission Washington, DC 20554 NOTICE OF EX PARTE COMMUNICATION Reference Docket IDs: WC Docket No. 05-195; CC Docket No. 96-45; CC Docket No. 02-6; WC Docket No. 02-60; WC Docket No. 03-109; CC Docket No. 97-21 and/or FCC 05-124 To Whom It May Concern: On December 12, 2005, we met with Narda Jones and Mark Seifert of the Wireline Competition Bureau to elaborate on the performance measurement concepts we proposed in our October 17, 2005 comment, filed in the above mentioned dockets. As a result of those discussions, we would like to submit additional comments suggesting some specific outcome measures the Commission could implement in the near term, as well as some additional public benefit measures that may require additional research before they can be implemented. We believe that our suggested measures reflect a concept of the public interest that should receive support from a broad spectrum of policymakers who genuinely seek to ensure that universal service programs promote affordable access to communications services. Therefore, our proposed measures should be politically viable as well as practical and economically sound. The fundamental source of our short-term vs. long-term distinction is that Congress directed the FCC to develop universal service programs that would promote affordable access to communications services for a variety of customers. However, affordable access should ...