Pai Drafts Seek to Ease Discontinuances, Give RLECs USF Relief, Curb Intercarrier Arbitrage

Regulatory barriers to replacing legacy service and networks with advanced broadband would be removed in a draft order to streamline telecom service discontinuance reviews and network-change notifications under Communications Act Section 214. A summary said the draft would reduce "the comment and automatic-grant timeframes for certain applications where discontinuing the legacy voice or lower-speed data service is unlikely to cause harm"; forbear from applying certain "discontinuance requirements for services with no customers and no reasonable requests for service for the preceding 30 days"; and eliminate "unnecessary education and outreach requirements for carriers discontinuing legacy voice services that were adopted in 2016." On network changes, the draft would eliminate "unnecessary and burdensome or redundant notification requirements," and facilitate "rapid restoration of communications networks in the face of natural disasters and other unforeseen events."

The FCC would stop applying USF contribution duties to certain rural telco broadband internet access transmission (BIAS) services under another draft order. The forbearance would "eliminate discriminatory treatment" of rural carriers that provide BIAS on a common carrier basis "and are uniquely required to contribute" to USF on the basis of related revenue, said a summary.

A draft NPRM seeking to curb intercarrier compensation arbitrage would offer LECs stimulating access charges two options for connecting to long-distance carriers (interexchange carriers or IXCs). A draft summary said such LECs could choose either: "to bear financial responsibility for the delivery of terminating traffic to its end office or the functional equivalent, including applicable intermediate access provider terminating charges normally assessed on an [IXC]" or "to accept direct connections from either the IXC or an intermediate access provider of the IXC’s choice, allowing the IXC to bypass intermediate access providers imposed by the access-stimulating LEC." The draft would also seek comment on: an alternative proposal to move "all terminating tandem switching, common transport, and tandem-switched transport rate elements for access-stimulating LECs to bill-and-keep [(zero-payment traffic exchanges)]"; "whether and how to revise the current definition of access stimulation to more accurately and effectively target" such practices; and "additional alleged intercarrier compensation arbitrage schemes and ways to eradicate them."

A draft Further NPRM on calls to toll-free "8YY" numbers would propose "reforms" to curb abuses in access charges on the originating end, which create incentives for "carriers to artificially inflate" revenue and for "parties to place unlawful robocalls." A summary said the draft would seek comment on: "a proposal to shift, over a three-year transition period, all interstate and intrastate originating toll free end office and tandem switching and transport charges to bill-and-keep"; a "proposal to address reported abuses of toll free database query charges by capping database query rates on a nationwide basis at the lowest rate currently charged by any price cap local exchange carrier and limit database charges to a single charge per call"; and "other issues related to reforming toll free access charges."

The FCC would take wide-ranging steps to rein in IP CTS service rates and use and revise telecom relay service fund contributions, under an draft order, declaratory ruling, FNPRM and notice of inquiry. A draft summary said the order would set "interim IP CTS compensation rates that would move those rates closer to actual average provider costs and thereby save the TRS [telecom relay service] Fund nearly $400 million over the next two years"; and "direct the TRS Fund administrator to require IP CTS providers to submit a more detailed breakdown and explanation" of their service costs. It would also "adopt rules to limit unnecessary IP CTS use and waste of the TRS Fund," including: "(1) rules to help avoid the costly generation of captions even when the user only needs increased volume to communicate effectively by phone; (2) a requirement that IP CTS providers include notifications in their informational materials designed to help prevent casual or inadvertent use of IP CTS; and (3) a general prohibition on providing IP CTS to ineligible users."

The declaratory ruling would "allow IP CTS providers that comply with the Commission’s mandatory minimum TRS standards to use fully automated speech recognition to generate captions," said the summary. It said the FNPRM would "propose and seek comment on measures to improve the compensation plan, funding, and structure of the IP CTS program," and "propose to clarify requirements for IP CTS marketing and other provider practices." The NOI would "seek comment on IP CTS performance goals and metrics to ensure service quality for users."

The FCC would "codify a rule prohibiting material misrepresentations on carrier telemarketing calls to consumers that often precede" unauthorized changes in a consumer's preferred carrier (slamming) and "codify a rule against cramming" (unauthorized fees on bills) under a draft order. A summary said the draft would "improve the efficiency of the existing third-party verification process by eliminating the requirement that a carrier must obtain the authorization of a consumer for each service sold when selling more than one type of service," and "suspend carriers from using the third-party verification process for two years when they are found to have abused that process."

Other June 7 tentative agenda draft items released Thursday were on 5G and toll-free texting: 1805170068; and OKing two new satellite constellations: 1805170062.