Wireline carriers are arguing over a proposal that would expand eligibility for incremental support funding under the Connect America Fund Phase I program. The American Cable Association and the NCTA came out Thursday against the proposal introduced in March by the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance, CenturyLink, Frontier and Windstream (CD Mar 8 p10).

TV stations and cable operators have differing views on whether an FCC rulemaking notice asking whether to extend viewability rules for another three years signals that the commission’s stance has long been settled. The 1992 Cable Act’s viewability provisions are at stake, the NAB said, in the agency’s forthcoming order on whether operators must continue to carry HD and standard definition versions of broadcasters guaranteed cable carriage in systems not all digital. Bright House Networks was among NCTA members that voluntarily committed to three years of what the industry terms dual carriage, and the association noted that period has ended. They said the NAB is trying to force the industry to treat that commitment as if it has no expiration.

Connect America Fund resources can be more efficiently used by cable providers to provide high-speed broadband service to rural areas, counsel for the American Cable Association reported telling FCC officials at a meeting Thursday (http://xrl.us/bmyv8k). Barring pole-attachment or right-of-way disputes, broadband projects can generally be completed within less than a year, and it should take no longer than two years to build out any census tract, the ex parte filing said. Therefore, the commission “should not inefficiently allocate its limited CAF resources to providers that require three years to deploy 4 Mbps/1 Mbps broadband service and five years to deploy 6 Mbps/1.5 Mbps service to some locations when there are other providers ready, willing and able to deploy in less than two years networks with much faster speeds which meet actual customer demands,” the ACA said.

Interests of cable operators and the Big Four broadcast TV networks aligned in what some called a rarity late last week. The owners of the ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC networks backed encryption of cable’s basic programming tier (CD March 2 p4) that includes signals of their affiliates by all-digital cable systems. It’s the first time cable programmers have directly weighed in on an FCC rulemaking proposing to let operators scramble basic channels to cut down on signal theft of unencrypted signals and let companies turn on and off service without technician visits to subscribers. The most vociferous consumer electronics manufacturer against encryption continued to oppose it: Boxee said broadcasters added no new reasons for the commission to act.

Calling cyberattacks a “critical threat to our economic future and national security,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski asked Internet stakeholders Wednesday to address three significant cyberthreats: botnets, domain name fraud, and IP hijacking. Specifically, Genachowski called on ISPs to develop and adopt an industry-wide code of conduct to combat botnets; develop secure routing standards to eliminate maliciously misrouted traffic; and adopt a series of DNS security extensions, called DNSSEC, developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Speaking at the Bipartisan Policy Center, Genachowski said the vulnerabilities were identified after he tasked the FCC’s Communications, Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) with making recommendations in March 2011.

Almost three months after the FCC approved a Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation reform plan, major industry players continue to seek significant changes. Comments were due last week on a further rulemaking notice approved as part of the order. How USF dollars ultimately will be divided as the fund is reconfigured to primarily pay for broadband is the key question addressed in most filings. They show that the FCC still has a huge job ahead as it continues to tackle changes to the USF. Numerous petitions for reconsideration have been filed in response to the Oct. 27 order. A second round of comments focusing on intercarrier compensation issues is due Feb. 24. Next week, the commission will begin to tackle Lifeline reform. Also looming are likely changes to the contribution side of USF.

Small cable operators will be hurt by new FCC rules on emergency alert system equipment that require pay-TV providers and others to get and pass onto viewers a new warning format, the American Cable Association said. The ACA said it and the NCTA had asked the commission to exempt cable systems lacking a physical Internet connection at their headends. The agency instead said in an order Wednesday (CD Jan 12 p8) on Part 11 EAS rules for Common Alerting Protocol that alert participants not served by broadband can seek waivers. CAP uses the Internet to send messages from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which developed the standard a few years ago. “Adding to the burden was the FCC’s decision to consider waivers only on a case-by-case basis while suggesting that any waivers granted will be limited to a maximum of six months,” ACA President Matt Polka said Thursday. “Because the FCC did not adopt or even consider a streamlined waiver process, ACA members will have to absorb the added expense of retaining counsel to draft waivers and track their progress within the agency after they have been submitted.” Some cable systems may shut down “prematurely” because of the new rules, Polka said (http://xrl.us/bmoiu9). He asked the commission to “promptly” reconsider the decision. The ACA is considering whether to file a petition for reconsideration, an association spokesman said. A spokeswoman for the Public Safety Bureau, which drafted the order, declined to comment.

Cable lobbied the FCC last week on the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation, before Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated an order on the topics (CD Oct 7 p1), filings in docket 10-90 show (http://xrl.us/bmfj53). Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable and American Cable Association executives had conversations with Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett and others in the bureau, an Office of General Counsel staffer and/or Zac Katz, aide to Genachowski who helped write the order. GCI and NCTA also wrote the agency about the ILEC-backed ABC plan. “Many incumbent providers are unwilling to interconnect and exchange traffic in IP format, yet also are unwilling to pay the applicable access charges when the traffic is exchanged in traditional Time Division Multiplex (TDM) format, with the cable operator bearing the additional cost of converting the TDM traffic to IP,” NCTA said (http://xrl.us/bmfj6u). “There is broad support for the end result proposed in the ABC Plan -- a unified termination rate of $0.0007 that applies to all traffic exchanged between telecommunications carriers in TDM format, without regard to the format in which it is originated or terminated.” The ACA asked that “any distribution of Connect America Fund” being set up to help pay for broadband be “consistent with the Commission’s objective to deploy broadband to unserved areas in a manner that is effective, efficient, and competitively neutral.” The group cited its “alternative” to the plan that was submitted to the agency with the NCTA (CD Oct 5 p13). Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable want USF reformed “in a manner that brings stability and predictability to ICC arrangements and eliminates on a going-forward basis wasteful ICC disputes between” ILECs and VoIP networks, the three companies said (http://xrl.us/bmfj64). They want “a seamless transition from the current system to a unified transport and termination rate for all voice traffic.” GCI, which seeks a plan for Alaska, where it’s the No. 1 cable operator, that may be different from the USF order for the continental U.S., said (http://xrl.us/bmfj7a) the ABC plan needs some changes “for the rules to achieve the objectives of unified and harmonized intercarrier compensation rates and reduced arbitrage.”

Cable advocates have taken their fight against the right-of-first-refusal provisions in America’s Broadband Connectivity plan to Capitol Hill, hoping to keep Congress from supporting the incumbent-backed plan, NCTA Executive Vice President James Assey told us Wednesday. President Michael Powell and Comcast/NBC Universal Washington President Kyle McSlarrow have been pressing their cases on the Hill. The goal is to keep legislators from signing incumbent-circulated letters to the FCC supporting the ABC plan, he said.

Small and mid-sized wireless carriers, cable operators and competitive local exchange carriers all criticized parts of the America’s Broadband Connectivity (ABC) plan for making major changes to the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regimes. The plan, a compromise among major telecom carriers and rural local exchange carriers, is unlikely to be approved without some changes, said industry and FCC officials. The trick for the FCC will be keeping ILECs on board while accommodating other interests (CD Aug 25 p1). The FCC also asked for comment on a “complementary” filing by rural carriers as well as proposals by the Federal-State Joint Board on USF, also discussed in many of the comments.