Sprint Nextel has lost its effort to stay an Iowa order requiring payment of intrastate access of interconnected VoIP. That may be the beginning of a series of battles over VoIP as the FCC moves ahead with its Universal Service Fund revamp, said state and industry officials. Meanwhile, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia recently ruled that by refusing to pay access charges for VoIP traffic, Sprint Virginia is in violation of 19 interconnection agreements with CenturyLink business units.

The FCC is working on a pole attachments order for the April 7 meeting that would lower rates for attachers, commission officials told us. No order is circulating -- but Chairman Julius Genachowski has said he would like to finish work on pole attachments by early April, and staff is nearing the end of its work, the officials said. Power companies have lobbied furiously in recent weeks to preserve rates but apparently haven’t swayed the commission, said FCC officials and utility lobbyists.

The FCC set comment deadlines Monday for its overhauls of the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation. Comments on Section 15 of the rulemaking order are due April 1, replies April 18. Comments on the rest of the order are due April 18, replies May 23. Comments are due May 2 from the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service.

Correction: TDS Telecom, an ILEC, urged the FCC to give ILECs a chance to recover investments in high-cost areas as part of Universal Service Fund reform (CD March 2 p12).

A recently adopted notice of proposed rulemaking aimed at reforming intercarrier compensation rules and the Universal Service Fund is on the right track, Sprint Nextel representatives said in various meetings with FCC legal advisors. “Sprint focused on the need for immediate action to address traffic pumping, intercarrier compensation for VoIP traffic, and phantom traffic,” the carrier said in an ex parte filing. “In particular, we expressed concern that the NPRM’s traffic pumping proposals will not effectively curb and prevent the spread of traffic pumping activities if it fails to include an effective trigger or does not limit rates to a level that is cost based."

Even historically nonpartisan telecom issues have become political in an increasingly divided Congress, and it’s become increasingly difficult to pass substantive legislation, former Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said in an interview Thursday with our sister publication Communications Daily. Dorgan blamed radio talk show hosts for politicizing the net neutrality debate, but he predicted demise for Republicans’ effort to overturn the FCC’s December order using the Congressional Review Act.

Even historically nonpartisan telecom issues have become political in an increasingly divided Congress, and it’s become increasingly difficult to pass substantive legislation, former Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said in an interview Thursday with Communications Daily. The Commerce Committee alum urged the FCC to complete what Congress couldn’t: an overhaul of the Universal Service Fund. Dorgan blamed radio talk show hosts for politicizing the net neutrality debate, but he predicted demise for Republicans’ effort to overturn the FCC’s December order using the Congressional Review Act.

The FCC unanimously adopted a rulemaking notice Thursday that begins the process of overhauling the Lifeline/Link-Up programs. Chairman Julius Genachowski said the two programs had grown in recent years but were too full of waste, fraud and abuse that threatened to undermine the Universal Service Fund reforms he’s championing. “Increases in the contribution burden are particularly concerning for the tens of millions of Americans at or near the poverty line who pay for phone service but don’t participate in Lifeline,” the chairman said. Thursday’s notice includes proposals that would cap the fund, allow the poor to buy bundled services with their monthly subsidies and create a separate “National Accountability Database,” administered by separate officials, to make sure customers receiving the monthly stipends are actually qualified to receive them.

Big ISPs are reluctant to help House Republicans scrambling to find industry support for overturning FCC net neutrality rules with legislation, said telecom industry officials. The House Communications Subcommittee on Thursday said it will have a legislative hearing Wednesday next week, but it remains unclear who will agree to testify. Republicans attempted to rally industry lobbyists in a closed-door meeting Wednesday (CD March 3 p1).

The FCC Thursday unanimously approved three items aimed at improving communications and radio service on tribal lands. Commissioners also heard testimony from tribal leaders about the state of communications in Indian country. The meeting came as the White House held a follow up meeting on last year’s Tribal Nations Summit.