The American Cable Association spoke with FCC Wireline Bureau officials Monday to discuss the Connect America Fund Phase II cost model, it said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/10zjrNi). ACA discussed how the model accounts for the tax shield associated with interest payments on debt, it said.

Requirements for video descriptions from emergency on-screen crawls haven’t changed much from what was in an FCC draft that has been circulating for a month (CD March 11 p3), said agency and industry officials. They said in interviews Thursday that the draft Media Bureau order and further NPRM hasn’t been controversial among the agency’s members, and a public-interest official said it may be approved largely intact. He said he hopes the further notice on Internet Protocol programming sent by MVPDs to connected devices in a pay-TV household gets a section added on accessibility of emergency crawls to those with both sight and hearing impairments.

Connect America Fund Phase I support should be awarded “efficiently” so “scarce government resources are not wasted,” the American Cable Association told an aide to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai Thursday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/ZUTARX). The commission should make available an amount of funding that “closely matches the cost to deploy broadband in the location to be served,” ACA said. The commission should be cautious of adopting a “new and more elaborate regulatory regime” that would lower the average cost of eligible locations, or increase the amount of funding available per location, it said. The commission should “certainly not” amend its rules without “sufficient evidence” that they're “so restrictive or arbitrary that they do not meet the original objectives for the program,” ACA said. Price cap LEC filings are “largely devoid of data” justifying expansion of the areas where should be provided, increase in the amount of support, or its use for deployment of second-mile fiber, ACA said.

With the U.S. “barreling toward” all-Internet Protocol networks, Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said he worries that infrastructure isn’t up to the IP challenge. Networks may be insufficient to accommodate huge increases in video-content streaming and other changes, he said at an American Cable Association conference. That the FCC hasn’t closed its docket to apply Title II common-carrier telecom rules to broadband means “a proposed rulemaking is hanging over your heads,” which “alone slows down progress,” Heller told executives of small- and mid-size cable operators in Washington Wednesday.

The FCC should proceed cautiously in establishing a more elaborate Connect America Fund Phase I support program because it was designed to be only a limited, interim program to be used until the Phase II cost model could be worked out, the American Cable Association told Wireline Bureau officials Wednesday (http://bit.ly/13AY989). The commission should change the rules only if it has evidence they are “so restrictive or arbitrary” that they do not meet the objectives for the program, ACA said. The commission need not increase the amount of support per location, or establish a new second-mile fiber component to the program, ACA said. ACA proposed that price cap LECs first be required to serve lower-cost unserved locations with up to 768 downstream/200 upstream kbps, before deploying broadband to areas that see less than 4/1 Mbps broadband. “Under ACA’s proposal each price cap LEC will now have more than a sufficient number of lower cost unserved locations,” the association said. ACA also cautioned about ILECs that might game the system by returning support they accepted in 2012, and then reclaiming the support in 2013 for use “under more lenient amended rules."

IP-to-IP interconnection policy isn’t relevant to AT&T’s proposed wire center trials, the telco said in reply comments on its proposal Monday. The FCC need not address IP interconnection issues to OK the trials, AT&T said. Nonetheless, “because so much of the advocacy opposing AT&T’s petition focuses on these issues,” the telco took the opportunity to respond: IP-to-IP interconnection is “needless, harmful, and unlawful,” and the FCC lacks Title II authority over the interconnection of information services. Verizon argued against new regulation of broadband networks and services, and the imposition of unbundling obligations on new technologies. CenturyLink said the commission should reject attempts by CLECs to gain a “competitive advantage” by imposing “unnecessary and counterproductive regulations on next-generation IP networks and services” (http://bit.ly/XAm5ok). But state regulators, CLECs and others criticized AT&T’s request as a thinly veiled attempt to maintain ILEC power while preempting state regulations.

Commenters generally supported a process proposed by the FCC Wireline Bureau to let parties challenge census blocks misidentified by the National Broadband Map (NBM). The process would let parties challenge census blocks identified as eligible to receive Connect America Fund Phase II support, when the parties argue they're actually unserved by an unsubsidized competitor. Cable and wireless ISPs offered some tweaks to the process. USTelecom and several rural associations offered alternative proposals that would involve recommendations by state authorities.

Twelve members of the Congressional Black Caucus urged the FCC to release the remaining Connect America Fund Phase I money. “We urge you to proceed promptly to finalize rules for CAF Phase I incremental support so that the $185 million unclaimed in 2012 and the original $300 million in support that is anticipated for 2013 can be invested quickly,” said a letter sent Wednesday by Reps. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., G.K. Butterfield., D-N.C., and ten others. The caucus members represent both rural and urban districts, so CAF funding is “not just a rural issue,” said a CenturyLink spokeswoman. In total, 20 senators and 44 representatives have sent letters asking the FCC to release the CAF funds, she said. As an ILEC, CenturyLink would be eligible for additional Phase I funding. CLECs have opposed efforts of large telcos to expand the program. The American Cable Association “combed through the Price Cap LEC comments searching for data providing sufficient support for their proposals to expand the areas eligible for Phase I incremental support or use of support for second-mile fiber and found none,” said ACA President Matthew Polka. “Their proposed wholesale expansion of eligible areas from 768/200 Mbps broadband service to those lacking 4/1 Mbps is not supported by the data."

USTelecom supported reinvesting the $185 million in unused Connect America Fund Phase I money, in comments filed Monday with the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance and the ABC Coalition (http://xrl.us/bodeec). A proposal to allow carriers to build “second mile” fiber to neighborhoods to increase broadband speeds is “most likely to advance the goals of the CAF Phase I program,” the group of ILECs said. They estimated the plan would double the number of households for which carriers would be able to receive funding. They said they supported the FCC’s proposal to allow carriers to accept additional funds to target consumers and businesses that are in areas unserved by broadband that meets the 4 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream standard. This approach would more closely align the program with the commission’s broadband, the comments said. “The potential benefits of the modifications presented today by the price cap carrier community are huge,” said ITTA President Genny Morelli. “These benefits, in the form of significantly increased levels of rapid broadband deployment to rural consumers throughout the United States, will pay substantial dividends for years to come.” But the American Cable Association said the FCC should “stay the course” and not expand the Phase I CAF criteria. Phase I was designed “to reach a significant number of relatively low-cost locations with up to $300 million in federal support,” said ACA CEO Matthew Polka in a statement. “With the funding allocated last year, the program’s stated objective is in the process of being achieved. Until that is no longer the case, the FCC need not substantially alter the program.” NCTA encouraged the commission to open up the fund to “any interested provider willing to bring broadband to unserved customers” (http://xrl.us/bodeek). Rather than continuing to give Phase I money to ILECs only, “the Commission should focus on the actual goal of universal service support: providing service to consumers,” NCTA said.

Telcos and cable companies said there wasn’t enough time to sift through the hundreds of thousands of National Broadband Map (NBM) challenges by the filing deadline for reply comments in docket 10-90 Thursday. The proceeding seeks input on the process of challenging the map’s designations. The cable and phone companies agreed a new, more formal challenge method was needed, but disagreed on the specifics. In comments earlier this month, cable companies and price-cap carriers criticized the NBM as “grossly” overinclusive and underinclusive depending on where one looks (CD Jan 11 p7). The map is used to determine where Connect America Fund Phase I money can be distributed. Price-cap carriers get access to the money to help fund broadband buildout in areas the map lists as unserved.