FCC increase of speed thresholds for broadband was criticized by industry groups and others in statements after Thursday's decision (see 1501290043). Reflecting the party-line division in Thursday’s vote, consumer groups praised the move, saying it will push ISPs to provide faster service. The decision “by regulatory fiat” to raise the standard for judging broadband deployment to 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up “is not grounded in marketplace realities dictated by actual consumer demand and willingness to pay,” Free State Foundation President Randolph May said: “It is conjured up in the imaginations of those who wish to exert more government control over Internet providers by artificially narrowing the market definition."

Dealing with interconnection in a net neutrality order is unnecessary, Verizon Vice President-Federal Regulatory Affairs Maggie McCready and other company officials told FCC Associate General Counsel Stephanie Weiner, Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Matthew DelNero and Chief Technology Officer Scott Jordan Jan. 15, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 14-28 Wednesday. Arguments by Netflix “and its allies” that broadband providers have incentives to thwart the open Internet at interconnection points are “misplaced,” Verizon officials said. “Internet interconnection has always been handled through an unregulated system of voluntary commercial agreements," said the ISP. "This flexible approach has been a resounding success that has encouraged investment and provided flexibility for innovative interconnection arrangements that accommodate new business models, new types of Internet traffic and changes in end users’ preferences.” Paid direct interconnection agreements are a “longstanding way to ensure a high quality connection and adequate capacity, particularly where traffic flows are not balanced,” the company said. “These arrangements ensure great service for mutual customers, and help to cover a portion of the costs associated with the content provider’s traffic.” Verizon also said it's not using paid prioritization, but if the commission were to adopt rules prohibiting it, the outlawed practice should be defined as broadband providers charging a fee to deliver bits faster than the bits of others over the last mile. Under that definition, the rules would not apply to arrangements other than in the last mile. Any rules on throttling should be focused on intentionally slowing particular traffic based on “the traffic’s source, destination, or content,” Verizon said, not impacting the option consumers have to slow all Internet traffic after reaching a certain threshold of data usage to avoid overage charges. The company reiterated its opposition to a Communications Act Title II approach and said forbearing from parts of the section is no “no panacea to address the many harms that would result from reclassification.” Opposition to forbearing from certain sections of Title II shows that the end game” of reclassification proponents “is not rules to ensure an open Internet, but regulation for regulation’s sake,” Verizon said. Also representing the company at the meeting were William Johnson, associate general counsel, Roy Litland, assistant general counsel-legal regulatory affairs, and David Young, vice president-public policy. The American Cable Association in a letter to the commission posted in the same docket also urged the commission, if it reclassifies broadband providers including cable operators as telecom providers, to “take immediate action” to eliminate or reduce higher pole attachment rates telecom providers can be charged compared to cable operators. While the commission reduced the disparity between attachments rates paid by telecom carriers and cable operators in 2011, “there can still be a considerable disparity when a pole owner uses the actual average number of attachers on its poles in the formula, rather than presumptions provided in the Commission’s rules,” ACA said. The association reiterated its stance that small ISPs should be excluded from reclassification, or if they are reclassified, they should be foreborn from Title II’s requirements (see 1501130049).

About half the $100 million in rural broadband funds provisionally awarded by the FCC went to bidders unable to provide financial disclosure statements to show they were qualified, according to the agency’s figures in a public notice.

The FCC raised the minimum broadband speeds required of Connect America Fund (CAF) recipients to 10 Mbps download Thursday, but CenturyLink complained the commission didn't provide enough in return to offset the costs, and that fewer expensive-to-serve rural ones will get service than had the commission done more (see 1411260040).

The question of whether and how much to increase the length of Connect America Fund support in return for recipients providing faster broadband remains under discussion at the FCC, with the commission scheduled to take up the issue Thursday (see 1411260040), industry representatives involved in the debate said. One issue that has emerged is a sentiment within the agency that CAF recipients continue to get funding for five years, as they do now, the representatives said.

The draft Connect America Fund order FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is circulating before a scheduled vote at the commission’s Dec. 11 meeting would give price-cap carriers some but not all of what they’ve sought in return for backing an increase in the minimum broadband speeds for systems built with CAF support, from 4 Mbps to 10 Mbps downstream, said industry officials involved in the debate. Wheeler is proposing the faster speed requirement in the draft order (see 1411200032).

Content companies requesting a stay to stop the FCC from allowing access to confidential programming contracts in the AT&T/DirecTV and Comcast/Time Warner Cable mergers “have no apparent reason to want the commission’s [merger] review to be expeditious,” said the FCC in an opposition response filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Monday. The document’s release has already been stayed to allow for an expedited pleading cycle, but the programmers -- which include Univision, CBS and Viacom -- want the document release halted until the court has had time to rule on a petition for review filed by the content companies last week (see 1411140063). The programmers may fear that the mergers will lead to lower prices for programming, the FCC said in their response to the motion to stay. The American Cable Association, Comcast, TWC and Charter joined Dish, AT&T and DirecTV with filings Monday supporting the planned release of Video Programming Confidential Information (VPCI) and restarting the 180-day shot clocks for both mergers. Meanwhile, NAB filed Monday in support of the content companies, arguing the court should stay the release of VPCI. “The Court should ensure that the issues here are carefully and fully considered.”

The FCC, with Commissioner Mike O’Rielly approving and concurring only in part, denied the American Cable Association’s petition to review the cost model used to determine funding for Connect America Fund Phase II, an order released Wednesday said. The dispute was over the model used to come up with the amount price-cap carriers will be offered to serve locations in their service territory that are above a specified funding benchmark, but below an extremely high-cost benchmark, said the order adopted Nov. 5 and posted Wednesday in docket 10-90. The area also can't be served by a competing, unsubsidized provider to be eligible for funding, the order said. ACA had argued the 8.5 percent cost of money used in the model was too high because it assumed interest rates will increase. Though ACA believed the rates will remain low, the commission was not persuaded “ACA’s predictions regarding future interest rates are more valid than the Bureau’s well-reasoned predictive judgment,” the order said. The commission was also not persuaded that “using a slightly lower cost of money would have a material impact on achievement of the Commission’s universal service goals,” the order said. The Wireline Bureau didn't overstep its authority and its decisions were not “clearly in error,” O’Rielly said in a statement, but he believed a lower cost of money would “be a more accurate prediction of interest rates over five years.” O’Rielly also said he disagreed with “the assumption, implicit in the analysis" that the CAF should aim to support more locations even if they're lower cost. The program's purpose shouldn’t be to “maximize the number of locations that receive a subsidy,” he said, but to “focus support on locations that are truly high-cost and are in areas that are not served or are unlikely to be served by a competing provider.” ACA declined comment on Thursday.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a proposal Tuesday to change the definition of a multichannel video programming distributor to be “technology neutral,” he said in a blog post Tuesday. As expected (see 1410220044), the draft proposal would open the definition up to include providers of linear online video, the blog post said. The change would give the new MVPDs “the same access to programming owned by cable operators and the same ability to negotiate to carry broadcast TV stations that Congress gave to satellite systems in order to ensure competitive video markets,” Wheeler said, referring to program access and retransmission consent rules.

There's “no sound reason” to allow LECs receiving Connect America Fund Phase II support to not serve specific locations in unserved areas and instead serve locations in partially served areas, NCTA Vice President-Associate General Counsel Jennifer McKee told FCC Wireline Bureau officials Oct. 17, according to an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1DAN8mL) posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. If the agency allows the flexibility, the burden should be on the LECs to show the specific locations they want to serve in the partially served areas that aren't being served, the American Cable Association said at the same meeting. LECs should also not be excused from serving all areas in an unserved Census block for which they're receiving CAF support, said Ross Lieberman, ACA senior vice president–government affairs, and Kelley Drye’s Thomas Cohen, counsel to ACA. CenturyLink and USTelecom had said they would be willing to support providing faster broadband speeds under CAF if granted the flexibility (see 1409100036).