Initial IP transition trial proposals were due Thursday,...

“Centralized Equal Access” service (http://bit.ly/1h6Dpdg). The experiment would help speed technological advances in rural America while “preserving the positive attributes of network services that consumers have come to expect,” the network provider said. Its CEA network aggregates rural traffic, centralizing the provisioning of expensive features and functionalities while bring the “benefits of advanced communications services and competition to rural areas of Iowa,” it said. Iowa Network Services wants to “study the impact on customers and rural communities” as its voice service converts from a CEA network based on time-division multiplex circuit switching to one based on IP technologies, it said. AT&T, which was the first to ask the agency to do deregulatory trials, filed a one-page letter Thursday indicating its proposal would be coming in one week. “AT&T has been working diligently to address each of the criteria outlined in the Order as it prepares to submit its proposal for conducting service-based experiments in a small number of wire centers in its wireline footprint,” it said (http://bit.ly/1p34S3O). “AT&T expects to complete its documentation addressing each of the criteria shortly and it is our intention to file our proposal for your consideration on February 27.” In a statement Friday, Chairman Tom Wheeler put a positive spin on the one proposal that had been received. “Last month the Commission unanimously adopted an Order inviting service providers to propose voluntary experiments designed to assess how the transition to IP impacts network users and initiating targeted experiments. Now, it’s great to see that real experiments are being proposed -- and quickly,” Wheeler said (http://fcc.us/1p38aUK). “We are already beginning to receive expressions of interest from entities that wish to participate in our rural broadband targeted experiments."