The FCC Wireline Bureau extended comments and reply deadlines to July 1 and July 22, respectively, on the special access Further NPRM in docket 05-25, it said in a notice in Monday's Federal Register.
Representatives of Alaska-based telcos explained the “Alaska Plan” with recommendations for future universal service support for Alaska’s rate of return and competitive providers, in a meeting with FCC officials, including an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler. “We discussed the challenge Chairman Wheeler made to the Alaska carriers during his visit to the state late last year to work to see if a plan could be developed to meet the needs of Alaska’s telecom providers,” a filing about the meeting said. “We described how the Alaska Plan was developed to meet the Chairman’s challenge and noted that a model-based approach was evaluated but ultimately rejected because it is extremely difficult, if not virtually impossible to adapt a model to Alaska’s unique conditions.” The Alaska Telephone Association made the ex parte filing Thursday in docket 10-90.
Rate cuts and the adoption of speed-of-answer requirements have demoralized video relay service (VRS) interpreters and made it a less attractive setting for them, Sorenson Communications said in an FCC filing posted Thursday related to docket 10-51. Sorenson Communications is a provider of communications products and services for the deaf and hard of hearing. Sorenson said the 2010 rate cuts and attendant closing of several interpreting centers also contributed to the problem. It said the small stream of new graduates in the field is not enough to fill the VRS openings. Also, further scheduled rate cuts will perpetuate the downward spiral, threatening the ability of VRS providers to provide functionally equivalent service, Sorenson said in the filing.
Windstream received a nine-year, multimillion-dollar contract from the General Services Administration as part of the Public Buildings Service green buildings initiative, it said in a news release. The contract will provide Enterprise Network Services for 1,200 buildings nationwide, Windstream said. It extends the current relationship between Windstream and the GSA to give telecom and technology solutions to more than 1,200 buildings nationwide, including the Department of Justice, the Department of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security offices, Windstream said.
Proposals in the FCC November NPRM on the IP transition single out ILECs “for disparate regulatory treatment and would continue to place ILECs at a competitive disadvantage in comparison to their cable and wireless competitors,” representatives of the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance said in a meeting with Wireline Bureau staff. ILECs are no longer the dominant providers of residential or business voice service, ITTA said. “We urged the Commission to refrain from adopting needless and intrusive regulations that will stifle innovation and investment and undermine its goals of facilitating the IP transition and advancing broadband deployment to consumers throughout" the U.S., the group said. ITTA expressed confidence that an analysis of the record “will show sufficient competition in the market for special access services, such that adopting the proposals in the NPRM would be premature and wholly unnecessary,” ITTA said. Its members CenturyLink and Frontier Communications also participated in the meeting, said an ex parte filing Monday in docket 14-174.
Sheriffs' offices from across the U.S. are pressuring the FCC to not impose inmate calling service (ICS) rules that would restrict their ability to charge for calls made from jails. Most of the letters use the same language asking the FCC to proceed with care as it moves forward on ICS rules. “Inmate calling is a discretionary service in our jail and it is allowed for the benefit of inmates and their families,” said a letter from the Mackinac County Sheriff’s Office in northern Michigan. “If we are not permitted to recover the costs associated with the provision of ICS service, then we can and we may be forced to significantly limit or eliminate altogether access to inmate phones in our jail.” The office said prisoners are allowed to make calls 16 hours a day: “Denying payments to jails or restricting such payments to levels that do not at least cover our costs, will have the effect of reducing the incentive and ability to continue to allow ICS in this manner.” The filings were made in docket 12-375. The National Sheriff’s Association made many of the same points in a January filing. “Sheriffs incur significant costs in allowing ICS in jails and … must be allowed to recover their costs to encourage the deployment of ICS,” the association said. It said a higher rate for ICS services in jails is appropriate and there should be a “significant transition period” before new rules are imposed.
The FCC’s opposition to Allband Communications Cooperative’s petition for Supreme Court review of the agency’s 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order should be rejected, the company said in a reply brief Wednesday. The company is contesting the order’s $250 per-line-per-month USF cap. The agency had argued Allband lacks standing to challenge the order because it had been granted a three-year waiver from the cap, has a pending petition to renew the waiver and thus hasn't been subject to the cap, said Allband’s brief. But the company said “’the ripeness doctrine’” shouldn't apply because the matter involves “issues of continuing public interest, capable of repetition and capable of evading review.” The agency also has no deadline for acting on the renewal request, and absent action, Allband would be subject to the cap July 1, the company said. The FCC also didn't respond to the company’s claims in its petition for review, including that the agency didn't follow applicable statutory provisions or congressional intent, the reply brief said. NARUC, U.S. Cellular and Cellular South have also asked the court to review a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the order on various grounds (see 1504090054).
The FCC’s letter-of-credit requirement for rural broadband experiment funding recipients shouldn't be implemented for CAF, Phase II funding, NTCA said in comments posted Monday in docket 10-90. The organization had filed an emergency petition seeking a waiver of the RBE requirement for an LOC from a “’top 100 bank,’” NTCA said. Those responding to the proposal have unanimously agreed the requirement should be changed and “should not be ported over” to CAF bidding, “if these programs are to have any chance for success,” NTCA said. The requirement is ”overly burdensome and impractical, if not impossible -- particularly for smaller entities obtaining relatively smaller awards,” the group said. A “deeper look at the specific track records of individual would-be CAF recipients is just as (if not more) important [as] any LoC obligations,” and a preference for funding should be given to those with a “demonstrated history of actual performance in or near the areas they propose to serve,” the group said.
Frontier Communications is committed to maintaining and expanding broadband in rural areas if the FCC approves the proposed transfer of Verizon LEC operations in California, Florida and Texas to the company, Frontier and Verizon executives told FCC officials, said an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 10-90. Frontier Executive Vice President-External Affairs Kathleen Abernathy and Verizon’s Kathy Grillo, senior vice president-federal regulatory and legal affairs, and Alan Buzacott, executive director-federal regulatory affairs, met with Daniel Alvarez, aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler, and Deputy Wireline Bureau Chief Carol Mattey April 7, said the filing. Bryan Tramont and Patrick Halley, of Wilkinson Barker, were also at the meeting.
The global wireline services market is likely to undergo “phenomenal growth” because of a rise in oil and gas exploration and production, said a report by Transparency Market Research released Friday. The market is expected to reach $34.96 billion by 2020, from $19.10 billion in 2014, a news release said. “Wireline services form an integral component of the oil and gas industry as the service is used for exploration, drilling, completion, stimulation, and intervention,” the release said.