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.
CenturyLink requested an expeditious FCC declaratory ruling, granting permission for an IP trial to explore the impacts of exchanging business voice traffic through VoIP instead of TDM in Las Vegas, said a petition filed Thursday. Partnering with CenturyLink in the trial would be Bandwidth.com and Inteliquent, CenturyLink Vice President-Federal Regulatory Affairs Melissa Newman told us. The petition said the trial will affect 12 wire centers in Las Vegas. CenturyLink will first recruit business customers to participate voluntarily. Then CenturyLink’s CLEC affiliate will exchange voice traffic that originates and terminates in Nevada in IP format with Bandwidth.com and Inteliquent over commercially negotiated IP interconnection arrangements. CenturyLink will work with the CLECs “to identify any technical, operational and logistic difficulties and work through them collaboratively,” the petition said. CenturyLink is not, as part of the trial, seeking to discontinue any services or requesting a waiver of any commission rules, the petition said. The trial is expected to last six months from the date it's approved, a company spokeswoman told us. Though the company has been investing in expanding broadband, it maintains a TDM network in 37 states, said the filing. Since 2000, incumbent LECs like CenturyLink have lost more than half their access lines as customers switched to cable, wireless, IP-based, and other services, and “many areas served by CenturyLink have reached, or rapidly approach, the ‘tipping point,’” where “continuing provision of those legacy services [is] impractical and inefficient,” said the telco. As the transition progresses, “it will make sense to begin exchanging voice traffic with other providers through VoIP connectivity, rather than existing TDM interconnection arrangements,” the petition said. The proposed trial would complement AT&T’s IP trial in Alabama and Florida, the petition said. AT&T’s trial focuses on the impact to consumers of a transition from TDM to wireline and wireless IP-based voice services, CenturyLink said. “In contrast, CenturyLink’s trial focuses on business customers and the exchange of VoIP traffic.” The trial will look at the impact on both consumers and the company, judging such things as call quality, Newman said. The proposed trial has been in the works since before FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a draft NPRM, to be voted on at the Nov. 21 FCC meeting, on questions about the IP transition. AT&T and the FCC had no comment. The issue is unrelated to concerns CLECs have raised about the retirement of TDM services in the business market, Newman said. A spokeswoman for Windstream, which has raised the concerns, agreed after a first glance with the proposal.
The FCC has received nearly 600 bids from 181 applicants for its rural broadband experiment, the agency said. Representing $885 million in projects, the bids propose to serve more than 76,000 census blocks in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, a news release said. The agency, in the coming weeks, will identify potential winning bidders, who would have to demonstrate their ability to do the projects, the agency said. The $100 million experiment is aimed at informing the agency on how to increase rural broadband through the Connect America Fund, the release said.
An ILEC should not discontinue services competitors use to serve business customers “until it offers comparable successor services on rates, terms and conditions,” Comptel General Counsel Angie Kronenberg and Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Karen Reidy told aides to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Thursday, said an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 12-353. Competitors should receive adequate notice before an incumbent is allowed to retire a service, Lisa Youngers, XO vice president-regulatory affairs, and Kelley Drye’s Thomas Cohen and Edward Yorkgitis told an aide to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly Thursday, said an ex parte filing in the docket. Responding to the aide, Youngers said competitors buying copper loops that incumbents want to retire “may be an option in very select instances, but there were not insignificant logistical issues.” Establishing a strong checklist for changes to the phone network would address concerns that carriers are “forcibly migrating consumers off copper-based service,” Public Knowledge’s Harold Feld, senior vice president; Jodie Griffin, senior staff attorney; Clarissa Ramon, government affairs and outreach associate; and Edyael Casaperalta, coordinator of the Rural Broadband Policy Group, told aides to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Tuesday, said an ex parte notice posted in the docket Thursday. The commission should “establish the metrics by which new technologies will be evaluated when carriers wish to transition away from their existing networks,” they said. Copper retirement rules, “including rules regarding adequate maintenance and consumer education, will only be effective if they are paired with adequate enforcement mechanisms,” they said. In light of the problems on Fire Island, New York, after Superstorm Sandy, the commission should also establish guidelines for situations when carriers want to change a network after a natural disaster, the filing said. Griffin, Ramon and Casaperalta made similar points to an aide to O’Rielly the same day, according to an ex parte filing. Griffin and Casaperalta also made those points to an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, also Tuesday, another filing said. Chairman Tom Wheeler is circulating a draft NPRM, expected to be taken up at the commission’s Nov. 21 meeting, which would raise issues on copper retirement (see 1410310047).
Several rural carriers associations are “frustrated” rural call completion record-keeping and reporting rules still aren’t in effect, more than a year after they were approved in an FCC order, representatives from NTCA, the National Exchange Carrier Association and WTA told an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday, said an ex parte filing posted Friday. “The record is replete with data and anecdotal information describing the extent of the problem and the serious public safety and financial ramifications of call failure,” the groups said. “Family members have been unable to contact loved ones, rural businesses have lost opportunities and customers, doctors have been unable to reach patients, hospitals have been unable to reach on-call emergency surgeons and there is a reported instance in which a 911 call center was unable to make emergency call backs.” The aide said Rosenworcel is committed to addressing the issue, said the filing, in docket 13-39. The agency said last month it’s awaiting the approval of a circulating order on the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance and USTelecom's petition to reconsider parts of the order, before sending necessary paperwork to the Office of Management and Budget (see 1409260039). The commission is expected to release the order "very soon," which would clear the way for seeking OMB approval, an FCC spokesman said. Representing the groups, according to the filing, were Jill Canfield, NTCA vice president-legal and industry; Colin Sandy, NECA senior regulatory attorney; and Derrick Owens, WTA vice president-government affairs.
African-American, Latino, low-income and rural students are more likely to be in schools with slow Internet connections, defined as 10 Mbps or less, says an Alliance for Excellent Education study given to an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Oct. 29, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 13-184 Thursday. Alliance Vice President-Federal Advocacy Phillip Lovell and Senior Policy and Advocacy Associate Rachel Bird Niebling urged increasing E-rate funding, the filing said.
Pay-Tel Communications’ Oct. 31 petition for an extension of its waiver from FCC interim interstate inmate calling service (ICS) rate caps should be denied, Securus said in an opposition posted in docket 12-375 on Wednesday. Pay-Tel’s 46-cents-a-minute rate “is more than double the Interim Rate Cap that every other ICS provider in the country is charging. It is well more than double Pay-Tel’s reported ICS costs. And it is almost double the rate that Pay Tel believes is reasonable for jails going forward” in its proposal for permanent rate caps, Securus said. Because of intrastate rates in some states, Pay-Tel can't recover its costs, the ICS provider said in its petition. Without the waiver from interstate caps, Pay-Tel said in its petition that it “would have to substantially curtail its operations, most likely by terminating service in its smallest facilities, or would go out of business altogether.” Comments are due on Pay-Tel's petition Nov. 12, replies Nov. 19, said a public notice seeking comment.
Granting USTelecom’s petition to forbear from several regulatory requirements on LECs would be a “concrete action” the FCC could take “in the immediate future to increase competition where Chairman [Tom] Wheeler has said it is most needed -- in fiber-based broadband,” said the group’s president Walter McCormick in a statement Thursday. “The petition calls for removing long outdated rules, such as those requiring companies to separate local and long-distance business, that prevent carriers from investing in the kind of advanced communications services that consumers want today. ... We believe action on this petition will lead to greater broadband opportunities for American consumers.” Comments on the petition are due Dec. 5, replies Dec. 22 in docket 14-192 (see 1411050047).
Saying Lifeline needs be updated for this century, the Internet Innovation Alliance unveiled in a white paper Thursday some proposed reforms. They include the creation of a Lifeline Benefit Card that would allow eligible consumers to purchase a range of communications services, including broadband, wireline or wireless voice services. While not endorsing any of the specific ideas, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel praised the report in a statement for “kickstarting a conversation about bringing the Lifeline program into the 21st century. Millions of households lack access to broadband today. Rethinking this program can help remedy that.” The study said only wireline phone providers are required to participate. The program "is a 20th Century government program aimed at spreading a 19th Century technology, voice service," said former Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., honorary chairman of the IIA, in a news release. The paper recommended that because providers administer the program and have an incentive to increase enrollment, a governmental agency should determine eligibility and conduct program oversight. The paper recommended including broadband in the program, and providing subsidies directly to customers instead of providers. "Expanding the program to focus on broadband, and simplifying its administration to welcome participation by more service providers, will help millions more Americans access modern communications services," Boucher said in the release.
Comptel wants the FCC to be "clear that it will not permit large incumbents to use technology transitions as basis for reducing last-mile options or forcing cost increases on rivals and their customers,” General Counsel Angie Kronenberg told Deputy Wireline Bureau Chief Matthew DelNero, according to an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 13-5. A draft NPRM being circulated by Chairman Tom Wheeler asks whether incumbents should be required to provide competitors with equivalent services when retiring a TDM service (see 1411040060).