The FCC Wireline Bureau asked parties to refresh the record on a cable/CLEC 2011 petition to revise a telecom rate formula to better allocate costs among carriers attaching lines to poles, which are most often owned by electric utilities. In a 2011 order, the FCC took steps to drive down the pole-attachment rates paid by telecom carriers to levels comparable to what cable broadband providers paid. Crafting a new telecom formula, the FCC assumed there would generally be five entities attaching to poles in urban areas and three in rural areas, which when combined with other assumptions, yielded a telecom rate equal to the cable rate. But the telecom formula didn't further lower costs -- and, thus, rates -- when more entities attached lines to poles than assumed. Comptel, NCTA and tw telecom (now Level 3) filed a reconsideration petition asking that the telecom rate rules "be clarified or amended by specifying [that] the cost allocator to be applied [will be] based on the number of attaching entities." Cable broadband providers used to be able to claim the lower cable pole-attachment rates but over time were sometimes subjected to the telecom rates, and now appear to be squarely covered by the telecom formula under the FCC reclassification of broadband Internet access as a Communications Act Title II telecom service, an industry official said. Comments are due 21 days after the notice appears in the Federal Register, replies 10 days later, the Wednesday notice said.
Securus Technologies accused ICSolutions, another inmate calling service (ICS) provider, of paying "site commissions" to correctional facilities in violation of the FCC 2013 prison phone rate order. In a letter posted Tuesday to docket 12-375, Securus said the order prohibited site commissions -- fees paid by ICS providers to correctional authorities to win exclusive phone contracts -- from being paid out of interstate calling rates. It said the Wireline Bureau had found FCC site-commission determinations hadn't been disrupted by a 2014 court partial stay of the order. Securus said it stopped paying site commissions on interstate calls, but it said ICSolutions was still making the payments on interstate calls to all of its correctional facility customers, citing a certified transcript of comments by ICSolutions Vice President Brendan Philbin to San Bernadino County officials: "All our calling is commissionable. [There's a] lot of confusion in the industry. A lot of suppliers are not paying commission on interstate calling. Not ICS. We have honored every single contract, and we continue to pay commissions on interstate. ... The FCC has done nothing forbidding payment of commission at all." The FCC said site commissions were "not part of the cost of providing ICS and therefore not compensable in interstate ICS rates." Reached by phone, Philbin had no comment.
FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly assured the WTA spring meeting Tuesday that he will make finishing “the remaining pieces” of USF reform, especially those related to the Connect America Fund for rate-of-return carriers, a top priority. “Everything else that the Commission may want to do with universal service -- make service more affordable for low-income consumers, wire schools and libraries, and connect rural health care facilities -- depends on having … infrastructure in place,” O’Rielly said in written remarks. “I have been dismayed by the haphazard approach that the Commission has taken to USF reforms, ratcheting up spending and expected broadband speeds while leaving millions of Americans unserved.” The FCC’s two E-rate orders expanded the program but offered little actual reform, O’Rielly said. The first order “just tacked on new spending for Wi-Fi within facilities regardless of whether they need the additional capacity or have adequate bandwidth to the building,” he said: The second “made it easier for entities to build their own fiber networks with no meaningful checks or limits to ensure that the funding will be targeted to truly unserved areas or used cost-effectively.” The FCC increased the E-rate cap by another $1.5 billion per year, he said. “At the time, there were assurances that we would not actually reach the new cap for several years,” he said. “But the window just closed, and I suspect that we may be very close to if not already at the new cap.” WTA members are already paying a price for so-called USF reform, he charged. “Without proper notice, the Commission decided that you will have to bid to provide service at rates to be determined at a later date as part of your Connect America Fund obligations,” he said. “Because that task was delegated to the [Wireline] Bureau, I won’t even get a chance to weigh in on their decisions.”
The FCC Wireline Bureau issued a public notice seeking comment on CenturyLink's petition to discontinue long-distance telecom service on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Nebraska and South Dakota. CenturyLink said no long-distance customers are in the service area. Comments are due by May 20. The bureau said the CenturyLink petition would be deemed granted June 5 unless the FCC notifies CenturyLink to the contrary.
Representatives of CenturyLink, Frontier and ITTA met with FCC officials last week to voice concern about the agency's NPRM on the TDM-to-IP transition. They said agency proposals for backup power for customer premises equipment (CPE) "are unwarranted and would result in increased costs and burdens for providers and consumers while impeding the Commission's broadband deployment goals," according an ex parte filing The telco officials said there was little consumer demand or expectation that providers supply CPE backup power. In fact, most consumers rely on alternative sources, such as wireless service, to communicate during power outages, the telco officials said. "In addition, the costs and burdens associated with the Commission's proposals would be tremendous," they said. Instead of backup power regulations, the FCC should examine best practices developed by the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council, they said.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Ajit Pai said that the internal phone system at the agency's headquarters will be reconfigured in June to let anybody in the building reach emergency services by dialing 911 without dialing an extra 9 or any other access code. In a joint statement, they said facilities across the country were making progress on streamlining 911 calls on multiline systems, and they hoped the FCC move would prompt others in federal, state and local government to join the ranks. "In an emergency, government employees and members of the public that visit government buildings should not have to think about whether an access code is required -- dialing 911 should always work," they said. Pai earlier called for the change in the phone system at the FCC (see 1501230039).
The FCC said it may fine Simple Network $100,000 for "allegedly providing interstate telecommunications services without registering with the FCC through the Universal Service Administrative Company." The company's alleged registration failure allowed it to avoid making payments that support federal programs, including the USF, potentially creating higher fees for others that do register, said an FCC release and an Enforcement Bureau notice of apparent liability Monday.
The FCC is seeking comment on TDS Metrocom’s application in docket 15-96 to discontinue its interconnected VoIP services provided via WiMax in the Appleton, Wisconsin, market area. TDS said it plans to discontinue its VoIP WiMax services in Appleton as early as May 15 and it notified affected customers about its plan April 15. An FCC public notice in Friday's Daily Digest said the agency will let TDS discontinue the VoIP services in Appleton on or after May 31 “unless it is shown that customers or other end users would be unable to receive service or a reasonable substitute from another carrier, or that the public convenience and necessity would be otherwise adversely affected.” Comments are due May 15.
The U.S. needs universal service support for broadband-only lines to avoid significant customer rate increases, WTA said in a meeting Monday with the FCC Wireline Bureau about the data connection service plan proposal, according to an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 10-90. WTA said it expressed concerns about the potential ways in which limitations on capital and operating expenses can satisfy FCC principles and goals regarding the use of forward-looking costs in its universal service mechanisms. Wednesday, the FCC said it would give 10 telcos up to $10.1 billion over six years for deploying broadband to rural areas under USF (see 1504300029 and 1504290066).
Windstream joined other telcos offered as much as $10.1 billion total over six years from the FCC to deploy broadband to rural areas in saying it's analyzing the USF offers (see 1504290066). "In the coming days and months Windstream will be busy analyzing the statewide offers to determine where its own investment combined with the offered support is sufficient to meet the program’s obligations or where Windstream instead will be compelled by economics to move to the competitive bidding stage," said Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Eric Einhorn in a statement Wednesday. The telcos have until Aug. 27 to decide whether to accept the money state by state, and where they decline, subsidies will be offered on what the agency called a competitive basis. "The task of extending broadband networks to these remote areas will take some years," said USTelecom President Walter McCormick.