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.

A group representing small cable operators and a broadcaster traded rhetoric. The American Cable Association said Nexstar was wrong to ask (CD Aug 1 p14) the FCC to not consider ACA’s comments about retransmission consent regarding a lawsuit the company filed against another broadcaster in the Fort Wayne, Ind., market. “Whether it likes it or not, or even admits it, Nexstar has filed an antitrust suit against a competing broadcaster that illustrates the point that coordinated action by TV stations to monopolize the local advertising market can produce largely identical anti-consumer harms as coordinated action in connection with retransmission consent,” ACA President Matt Polka said in a news release Wednesday. The broadcaster’s response “elucidates the position that ACA presented” that the suit “rests on the same basic economic argument as ACA’s filings in this docket urging the Commission to adopt a per se prohibition on coordinated” retrans talks by separately-owned stations in the same market, the group said. Its Wednesday filing is in docket 10-71 (http://xrl.us/bk4fsr).

Rural Cellular Association President Steve Berry sharply criticized the Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation proposal formally filed by a U.S. Telecom-organized group of carriers at the FCC Friday (CD Aug 1 p1). He argued it’s a wireline-centric plan that largely leaves wireless in the cold. Berry called the proposal “a joke.” RCA represents small to mid-sized carriers. Satellite broadband companies, who also were not part of negotiations on the proposal, also criticized it Monday. Consumer groups and states’ rights advocates expressed concerns, while executives representing small and mid-sized cable operators expressed support for elements of the plan.

The FCC issued its first guidance on the net neutrality order’s disclosure rules. Among its recommendations, the commission said in a public notice Thursday (http://xrl.us/bkygdq) that the December order allows ISPs to comply with the point-of-sale rules by “directing prospective customers at the point of sale, orally and/or prominently in writing to a web address."

Broadband reclassification is once again haunting the FCC’s proceedings, this time as rural telcos seize on broadband’s Title I status to lobby on Universal Service Fund reforms. The commission elected to take a Title I approach in its net neutrality order (CD Dec 2 p1), but in recent weeks, executives of rural telcos have begun to argue that proposals to roll universal service cash into a Connect America Fund for broadband will raise “a host of legal and practical complications” under Title II (CD May 9 p13).

With less than four months to go before an FCC-promised deadline for Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime reforms, industry appears to be divided on how to fix the system. The American Cable Association, for instance, said its “diverse and interested membership” meant the association “has had to navigate and balance strongly competing interests, while ensuring any policy proposals are in the public interest.” The FCC’s proposed rewrites at least “provide a good starting point to bring broadband to unserved areas, and, through refinements and targeted rebalancing, there is the potential to adopt reforms this year to reorient the High-Cost fund to improve efficiency and achieve universal broadband service,” ACA said in its comments. All comments were posted to dockets 10-90, 09-51, 07-135, 05-337, 01-92, 96-45 and 03-109.

It’s “clearly inequitable” that phone companies get high-cost support from the Universal Service Fund in areas where cable operators Allegiance Communications and Metrocast have systems, their executives told an aide to FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, a Thursday filing recounted. The American Cable Association, of which the companies are members, said in the filing that ACA wants the commission to focus on supporting broadband in unserved areas. That’s as the agency seeks to use USF money to fund broadband, in the Connect America Fund, said the filing in docket 10-90.

"Count on me to be that cop on the beat,” FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said Tuesday on monitoring Comcast’s compliance with FCC conditions on its purchase of control in NBCUniversal. “I expect to hear from you of anything that escapes my attention,” she told the American Cable Association. “Operators like you needed certain protections in place and available remedies to utilize,” including baseball-style arbitration with Comcast over access to its programming, she told the conference. A curb that she pushed for requires the dispute resolution, in which an arbitrator chooses one of the sides’ final offers.